Charge up! Precure
by ThePriestess
Summary: Nana and Saiko are two high schoolers who live in a high-tech city called Clairewood which has been under the care of an AI who won't let anyone in or out of the city. A mysterious cat-like robot shows up, and tells them they have the power to liberate their city.
1. Chapter 1: Kittens and Superpowers

[Well. I didn't think this day would ever come. Thank you for beta-reading, kokoruu and nexus schwarz!]

* * *

 **1\. Kittens and Bits**

She hurried along on the pavement. She didn't have to look in front of her to know where to go; this was a standard ritual for her at this point. As she rounded the corner she broke into a sprint. There it was: The school bus; waiting at a stop. A rush of adrenaline shot through her as she ran, _she couldn't miss it again!_ As she came closer, she saw a familiar head poking out of the side of the bus.

"Nana! Hurry up, the alarm is going off!" the other girl shouted, a worried expression on her face as she held an arm out towards her friend.

Nana got close enough to hear the warning voice-over from the bus, accompanied by a beeping that sped up the longer the warning played.

"Please step away from the doors, you are outside the safety zone. Please step behind the yellow line. If you do not remove yourself within _30_ seconds, authorities will be alerted."

The message kept replaying.

"20 seconds." Nana could see people pulling at her friend's shoulders, trying to get her to step back, but she resisted.

"10 seconds." She was almost there…

"5 seconds." She almost grasped the outstretched arm, when the other girl suddenly pulled back. Her friend stumbled back a little as she stopped resisting the people pulling on her, and looked at Nana with a guilty expression as the bus doors closed in front of her.

"I'm sorry," she mouthed. Nana gave a sigh and shook her head as she watched the bus drive away.

As she was walking she heard her phone buzzing. She rolled her eyes as she unlocked it.

" _Oh dear, Nana. It looks like you missed your bus again!_

 _Maybe you should get up a little earlier in the morning?_

 _Or perhaps not dawdle just because your favourite cartoon is on?_

 _I care about you, dear, I don't want you to miss any of your important studies!_

 _As you know by now, this means you'll have detention after school today._

 _And it pains me to say this but I will have to add a warning as this is your fifth_

 _time missing the bus: If you are late again I will have to contact your guardian._

 _Don't forget: I do this because I love you._

 _Hera."_

She stared at the message, lingering at the second to last sentence. "Guardian," she scoffed. "It would've been 'parents' if it wasn't for you."

When Nana got to the school building she saw to her relief that everyone was still in the big square in front of the school. She looked up at the screen that had been attached to the front of the building a month ago; it showed the school emblem. _Oh good, I just missed her stupid speech.  
_ She tried looking for her friend, which was hard in the big crowd of all the identical school uniforms. She tried looking for a red and gold striped ribbon, but even then there were enough other students that wore one just like it that it didn't make the search that much easier.

"Nana!" She turned around and there she was, right next to her.

"Saiko! How did you find me?" Saiko brushed a long strand of brown hair out of her eyes and smiled. "I just followed the sound of dramatic panting."

"...Dramatic? Is it really that bad?" As she looked around, Nana noticed some students giving her odd looks. "Hey, give me a break!" she uttered, feeling her cheeks turning red. "I ran for like thirty minutes, you'd be tired too!"

* * *

"Did you get detention?" Saiko asked as they walked through the corridors towards their classroom.

"Yeah, I got another one of those stupid texts from her. It's ridiculous, I only missed the morning speech! I can't believe I got detention for that. It's not like she ever says something important, it's just 'oh dear children i love you so much study well eat your fruit brush your teeth blah blah blah'. We're not five!" As Nana did her childish impression of their overseer Saiko cringed a little beside her.

"You need to be careful," she whispered, "you know what happens to people who oppose her."

"I guess," Nana replied, looking defiantly at the floor. "But she doesn't do it to kids anyway."

"You don't know that." Saiko lightly touched Nana's arm. "We haven't seen it happen, but that doesn't mean she doesn't do it. I imagine she thinks kids are less dangerous than adults."

Nana wanted to tell Saiko how dangerous she'd be if she ever met Hera in person, but they had arrived at their classroom and their teacher was standing next to the door. He had a friendly smile on his face, but the luminescent blue rings around his pupils and the small black chip on his right temple just made him look eerie to Nana.

Nana and Saiko's high school was pretty normal compared to any other high school in the world. The only odd thing was the all-overseeing and overly doting AI that stood in contact with every single person there. It wasn't limited to just their academy, she watched over the entire city.

About a month ago, Nana couldn't remember exactly how or when it happened, the city of Clairewood got enclosed by a barrier, and _she_ had appeared. She had called herself Hera, and projected herself on the sky. Hera told the citizens to not worry and that she would take care of everyone, and that nothing bad would ever happen in the city from now on. She asked everyone to please work together so that they could all be happy.

But nobody was happy.

They couldn't leave the city, nor could anyone outside of it get in. Because of this many people had been separated from relatives, including Nana. Her mother had been visiting their grandmother outside of Clairewood that week. Her father had been inside the city when the event happened, but he had disappeared shortly after. The official name for the event was 'The Initiation of Protection Protocol 1.0'.

Hera genuinely didn't seem to mean any harm, she always spoke very lovingly to the people, but strange things were happening in the city. There were no more human policemen and anyone who got too vocal about their dislike of The Protocol would vanish and return, altered, with strange glowing circles in their eyes and a tiny chunk of metal on their right temple.

Nobody was going to accept this way of living forever. Too many people were cut off from friends or relatives. They'd keep fighting to get them back no matter what Hera did, Nana knew it!

At the least it was what she was doing.

As she stared at the azure sky outside, she wondered what was happening in the world outside the barrier. Were they trying to rescue Clairewood? Would they be able to reach Hera?

* * *

"Would you like to come to the shelter?" Saiko asked when the bell rang after their final class.

Nana shook her head as she stuffed her books into her bag. "I can't, detention, remember?"

"Oh yeah…" Saiko averted her eyes, she looked guilty. "I'm sorry for not holding the door open for you this morning."

"It's okay."

"It's just... The voice warns you they're gonna alert the authorities! What does that even mean? Do they throw you in jail? Everyone was looking at me and they looked annoyed, and someone tried to pull me away from the door and... I panicked." Saiko looked at the floor, her face hidden by her long, russet hair.

"It's okay, Saiko. I understand." Nana smiled at her friend, trying to comfort her. She knew Saiko absolutely hated getting attention, they'd been friends since they were kids.

"Please don't feel bad, it's my own fault for getting there late!" Saiko looked up at Nana, her honey-coloured eyes misty, but a small smile appeared on her face. "I'm sor- Gosh I apologize too much, I'm sor- Argh!"

Nana laughed.

* * *

Detention was dull, as always. Nana did her homework as was expected of her. That was actually a good thing about detention; she'd actually do all the homework she had, whereas if she'd been at home she would've procrastinated until the last possible moment.

"Don't forget to scan your chip at the door," the lady overseeing the small group of tardy students said as they were leaving. "Or Hera won't know you've done your detention." As if automatically Nana held her right arm up to the small device next to the door of the classroom; it showed a small graphic of a happy green face and sounded a short, high-pitched "beep!" to tell her the scan had succeeded. Pretty much immediately after her phone buzzed. Nana didn't even bother looking at the message, she already knew it was Hera praising her for doing her detention and then warning her about the repercussions of being late.

* * *

As she was waiting for the bus she saw kids pass her on bikes and pondered if it wouldn't be smart to get one herself. It would be easier to get to school in time, and absolutely no AI would be involved. Bikes in Clairewood thankfully only had gps systems, no minds _-did AI really have minds?-_ of their own.

She bit her lip and decided against it when she remembered that she lived in a very busy street with no separate lanes for bikes; with all the traffic it'd be very hard to get around. Why did her brothers have to own a store again?

* * *

"I'm home!" she called as she tossed her bag onto the table.

"Hey, watch where you're throwing that, I'm working here!" A young man sat at the table, holding two different tools in both hands. He was working on a small, round, and brightly coloured device, and little bits of electronics were scattered all around him on the table. He looked very irritated.

"Gee, I'm sorry for disturbing your little project. What does this one do, brush your teeth for you?"

The man raised his eyebrows. "Wow, someone's had a bad day. And no, it doesn't. We already have a robot that does that and I'll have you know Toothy Shine is _very_ popular with children and the elderly." Nana let out a sigh.

"I'm sorry. I missed the bus and Hera threatened to contact you if I was ever late again." She walked over to the fridge and looked at the contents. "I don't know what she expects you two to do about it, but it's still kinda scary you know." Nana turned around to look at the young man, holding the door open with one hand. "This huge AI that projects herself on her sky and stuff... Like, what if she makes me into a Docile?"

The young man looked up from his work and scoffed. "She's not gonna do that just because you missed the bus a couple of times! Yes, technically you are defying her but it's not like you're yelling from the rooftops that you think she's a tool."

 _Please close the door. It is getting a little humid in here!_

Nana turned back to look at the fridge, which appeared to have gained the ability to speak. On the third shelf she noticed a small blue robot. It had two rectangular eyes, and its round body had a snowflake design painted on it. It also appeared to be shuddering slightly.

"Shuya...?"

"Ah, it works! Do you like the new version of 'Mei, It's Cold In Here'? It's to remind people to always close their fridge doors."

"Are you serious-"

 _Please close the door, I can feel my body melting._

"I just wanted to grab some orange juice, I don't need this thing to tell me to close the door everytime I open the fridge."

Shuya turned around to look at her, a big grin on his face. "If you close the door fast enough, it won't talk."

Nana just stared at him for a few seconds. "Don't fridge doors have a built-in system for that sort of stuff anyway?"

"Yes, but this is cuter!"

 _Please. I am dying._

Nana slammed the door shut. Shuya turned back to his work.

"Was that too extreme? It's still a work in progress," he said, as he resumed tinkering.

Nana realised she didn't get anything from the fridge thanks to the silly robot, but didn't feel particularly interested in opening it up again so she just opted to get some tap water instead.

She sat across from Shuya and watched him work. His short blond hair was a mess, as often happened when he was working. She looked at the faded pink at the tips of it. Somehow the dye had lasted a lot longer on his hair than it had on hers, despite them having the same hair colour. They even had almost the same hairstyle, though Shuya had shaved sides which Nana didn't.

"So what does this one do?"

"It takes people's coats, or at least it's supposed to," Shuya replied without looking up. "But right now it tries to forcibly tear your coat off you when you tell it no." He took a chip out of the robot, put it in a small device plugged into his laptop, and started tapping away on the keyboard.

"Where's You?"

"He's still in the shop. The new sign has arrived and he's putting it up right now."

Nana frowned. "You didn't seriously go with 'If it has a face, it's probably Mori's' for a subtitle, right?"

"You'll see when you look at the front of the store tomorrow."

Shuya and You Mori were Nana's older brothers and currently her guardians now their parents were missing. They ran a small shop called Mori's, where they sold all sorts of household robots they had built themselves. Their inventions were cute, Nana had to admit, but she wished they wouldn't all test them out inside their own house. It was one of their inventions that woke her up in the morning, another one that ironed her uniform for her and yet another one that made her her breakfast. If only they'd invent one that could go to school for her, she thought.

* * *

At 8 pm her phone buzzed, and through the window she could see a vague red light shining in the sky.

 _Attention everyone. It is now 8 pm. Do you know where your children are? Because they should be indoors! If they are not inside by 8:30 pm, I will have to find them and I will make sure to safely deliver them home! But it'd be best if it wouldn't come to that, don't you all agree, guardians? Goodnight! And remember, I love you._

Curfew. Hera's voice was muffled by the walls of the apartment, but Nana had heard the announcement so often now she basically knew it by heart. She didn't know what happened if you stayed out past 8:30 pm, though an urban legend in the school told the story of two kids whose parents were turned into Dociles because they broke curfew.

Suddenly her phone buzzed again; someone was calling her. As she looked at the phone, she saw Saiko's face. She pressed the answer button, and a little hologram of Saiko appeared on her screen. She looked horrified.

"Saiko, whats wrong?"

"I'm outside, I'm lost! I went to the forest because we got a call there'd be a person here with kittens to pick up, but I took too long and now it's dark and I can't find my bike!" It was clear Saiko was struggling not to cry. Nana shot up from her seat and ran to the door. She opened the small cabinet in the entryway and took out a pair of skates. She hurried to get them on, her phone next to her. "I found the kittens, I can't reach my parents... I don't know what to do!"

Nana got up carefully so she wouldn't fall, then opened the front door.

"Hey, where do you think you're going?" She heard one of her brothers calling from the living room.

"It's urgent!" She called back as she slammed the door behind her, racing as fast as she could to the edge of the city, where the forest was. It was quite a while away, at least twenty minutes, and then she'd have to help Saiko get back home... They'd never make it before 8:30 pm. Right now that wasn't important though. She needed to get to Saiko and make sure she was okay, and assure her that everything would be alright. If Hera would try to turn Shuya and You into Dociles, she'd… she'd-

Nana couldn't finish her thought as something rather large and white hit her right in the head. She fell and landed hard on her back. "Ow!" She sat up and clutched her head in her hands. Her phone was in the grass next to her.

"Are you okay?" A familiar voice said.

"Saiko? I thought you were lost!" Nana looked up and saw her best friend standing over her.  
"I was. But this little guy showed me the way out of the forest." She pointed behind Nana, and as she turned around she saw the thing she had skated into. It was a hovering robot, about the size of a football (though slightly more round in shape). It had two big triangles on top of its head, which were painted green and pink on the inside. Under that was a black display, in which two electric blue eyes softly flickered. A faint light emitted from its underside, and it slowly flew over to Saiko's side.

"I am sorry if you got hurt!" it chirped.

"Wow, it looks like something my brothers would build," Nana said as she rubbed her head. She had all but forgotten about the curfew, as had Saiko it seemed.

"My name is Bit, and I can assure you I was not! I wasn't made by anyone from this city. I am here to save you!"

Saiko smiled. "He said that when he led me out of the forest as well. Look!"

She held up her arms and Nana saw she was holding three mewling kittens. Her eyes went big. "They're so tiny!" Saiko nodded, and her expression grew serious.

"We need to get them to the shelter as soon as possible! I found Bit hovering around them, but I didn't realize he was friendly, so I grabbed the kittens and ran. And that's how I got lost," she added in a small voice.

An alarm sounded from the sky. "Oh no, the curfew! What do we do?" Saiko turned to Bit, as if the tiny cat-like robot held the answers to all her problems. Nana struggled to get up.

"I guess we should try to get home as fast as we can, but shouldn't we find your bike first?"

"I'm scared." Nana put her arm around her friend's shoulder.

"Don't worry, it can't be that bad."

"What if they really turn your family into Dociles, Nana?" Saiko whispered, looking at the ground.

"I am here to save you!" Bit repeated. Nana looked up at the little robot.

"Why do you say that? What does that even mean, are you gonna lead us home or do you mean to destroy the barrier or something...?"

"I was made to protect Clairewood. But I can't do it by myself, I need your help!"

"Our help?" Nana frowned. "What can we do?"

"There's not a lot of time, they're coming to get you right now!" Bit chirped. Saiko let out a small cry of fear. "I can make you strong. I can make you into Precure, and you can fight against the injustice in Clairewood! But I need you to agree to it first."

"Precure? That sounds familiar..." Nana mused. "Where have I heard that-"

"YES LET'S JUST DO IT, I DON'T WANT THEM TO CATCH US!" Saiko suddenly cried.

"Thank you, Saiko!" the little robot said with smiling eyes. "And you, Nana?"

"Please," Saiko said beside her.

It took a few seconds of deliberation, but then Nana nodded. "If it means we can save Clairewood, then I'll do it."

"Good!" Bit made a little jump in the air.  
Several things seemed to happen all at once. Nana felt a warmth on her arm and saw a bright, pink-tinged light from the corner of her eye. Her phone lit up in the same colour, still down in the grass where it had fallen when she hit Bit. Saiko let out another small cry and jerked her arm up to look at it. "What is this?" She said, sounding shocked.

Around Saiko's right lower arm, right on top of the scanner chip, a small bracelet had appeared. The outside was solid white that seemed to shimmer in the faint light Bit gave off, while the middle was a translucent green. Right on top, like a watch, was what appeared to be a small, white cat's head. It had two sleepy looking lime-coloured eyes. Nana held up her own arm and noticed a similar bracelet had appeared on hers, only it was pink where Saiko's was green and the eyes on the cat were fully open. "You will need those bracelets to transform into Precure! Now please get out your phones." Nana took her arm off Saiko and bent down to pick it up. When she turned it over she noticed it had completely changed appearance. The back of her phone now had a very intricate design with a cat's head in the middle that matched the one on her bracelet and that appeared to be made out of the same white material.

"Now what do we do?" Saiko said. "You said they were coming to get us, right?" She looked very determined, the kittens still meowing in her arms.

"They are! Hera has sent two policebots to come and get you! They're really close, we have to hurry!" Nana held her wrist up to her phone and noticed the screen started glowing.

"Yes, you got it!" Bit said cheerfully. "Now chant: 'Precure, recharge!' And then, 'Activate'!"

"Wait, when should I say 'Activate'?" Saiko said while putting the kittens down in the grass.

"You'll know when to do it, just trust me!" Bit replied.

Nana took a deep breath and held her phone in front of her, then put her wrist up in front of it.  
"Precure, recharge!" The screen started to light up, brighter and brighter. As if by magic, Nana knew exactly the right moment, and shouted: "Activate!"

The bracelet and her phone seemed to melt together and formed into what appeared to be a gauntlet around her arm.

"Quickly, tap your clothes!" Bit shouted, though he sounded weirdly far away. Somehow Nana felt like she already knew that was the next step. As she touched her collarbone, white shoulderplates appeared in place of her jacket, connected by the same cat-face as before with a big pair of white wings sprouting from it. The oversized sweater she had worn underneath it became bright pink and was replaced with a rose coloured dress. When she touched her sides, another piece of shimmery white armor appeared, and a big pink ribbon grew from its back. She tapped her skates, which transformed into boots, and noticed socks and gloves had appeared on her legs and arms, both a darker shade than the dress.

She tapped her head with both hands and felt her hair grow slightly longer and it turned pink, while two small white hairclips appeared on each side of her head. As a final touch she lightly tapped her left shoulder, and a hot-pink ribbon tied itself around it.

"Don't forget to think of a Cure name!" Bit shouted.

"Yes!" Nana replied, feeling a burst of energy she had never felt before.

"The hero who short-circuits all evil-doers, Cure Spark!" She finished. The pink light that had surrounded her faded away and she was back in the dark, on the edge of the forest. In front of her stood Saiko.

"The… The hero who dreams of the future! Cure... Volt!" She exclaimed, though she sounded rather uncertain of herself. "Oh, that was no good," she said slumping her shoulders. "Yours is all cool about fighting monsters and I just talk about sleeping!"

"I think it's a good one, Cure Volt!" Bit said cheerfully while flying around her. The girls looked at each other. "Wow, Saiko, your hair!"

Saiko's hair had turned a bright shade of lime and had grown about 30 centimetres longer. Her outfit looked similar to Spark's, though it was green in colour and her boots were a lot longer. Her skirt wasn't as flowy as Spark's was, and she also had a ribbon, but it was in her hair, not on her upper arm.

"I'd advise you two to not call each other by your real names when you're transformed," Bit added. He landed in the grass beside the kittens, which immediately started climbing up on him.

"Oh no, there they are!" Saiko pointed towards the street and Nana saw the two policebots approach. Just like Bit they hovered a little above the ground which gave off a soft humming noise, which grew louder as they came closer. They were navy and white in colour, with red and gold detailing here and there, and they wore slightly oversized police caps. Nana figured this was done to make them look less threatening, but to her they just looked like garbage cans with hats.

"So, do we beat them up?" She looked at Bit, who fervently shook his head.

"No! You can walk past them and go home. Your Cure form makes you undetectable for robots like them! They won't notice you even if you walk right by them."

Spark frowned. "Wow, I thought being a Precure would be more exciting than this, what with the catchphrases and the transforming."

"Trust me, it will be, soon enough! I will explain everything later."

Volt bent down to pick up the kittens.

"Let's go, Nan- I mean, Spark. I'll pick up my bike in the morning. These little guys really do need to get to the shelter soon, they're too small to be on their own for long."

When they passed the bots, they did indeed not acknowledge the two Cures. The girls quietly walked past them, then broke into a run.

"Hey Bit, how do we turn back? Wait, can we even turn back?"

"Yes! Just turn the little cat face on your gauntlet once, clockwise. You should turn back once we get into the city. Hera can no longer detect you even when you're normal thanks to the bracelet on your arm."

The girls hid in an alley and turned back. Thankfully Saiko's parents' animal shelter wasn't far from where they were.

"Bit should stay with you, my parents don't like having robots in the house," Saiko said as she opened the backdoor of her house. Nana nodded.

"I'll see you tomorrow. Wow, this was a weird night."

* * *

While skating home, Nana took out her phone. To her fear -but not exactly surprise- she saw she had thirteen missed calls. _It still works like a regular phone, then._

When she moved to open her front door, it nearly hit her in the face. "Nana! Good gods where have you been?!" A tall young man stared at her with a shocked expression on his face, his eyes wide. His glasses were low on his nose and his hair, which he had neatly combed to the side, had some strands sticking out wildly here and there.

"You, I-"

"Get in, get in! Before they see you." He roughly grabbed her by the arm and pulled her indoors. She nearly tripped over her skates as he did so and Bit had to hurry to get inside; You nearly slammed the door on him.

Nana jerked herself loose from her older brother's grip. "I just went out to get Saiko! She got lost in the forest. You know how easily she's scared, I just wanted to help her."

"We were worried sick! Shuya's actually out looking for you right now." You held up his phone, which had Shuya's holographic head and shoulders poking out of it. "Nana, are you ok? Did you get hurt?" He sounded very worried. Just like You he looked rather bedraggled. Nana shook her head, while rubbing her arm. "You didn't have to be so rough," she hissed at You.

"I'm sorry. But we couldn't reach you and you left in such a hurry, I was about to call the police!"

"You're not a superhero, Nana," Shuya's hologram said sternly.

 _You have no idea_ , Nana thought.


	2. Chapter 2: The Silver Daughter

**2\. The silver daughter**

That evening Nana was lying on her bed, staring out the window where the bright lights of the inner city flickered. Bit sat next to her on her nightstand.

It wasn't quite bedtime yet, but Nana had gone to her room almost immediately after she got home, as she didn't want her brothers yelling at her. She was also rather furious with You for pulling her arm so roughly. _I'm not a child!_

"I'm surprised your brother didn't say anything about me," Bit said, looking up at Nana propped up on her pillows.

"There's dozens of tiny robots flying around the house; he probably mistook you for one of his products."

"Products? I am not a product! I am a fairy and my name is Bit!" His eyes changed from their usual friendly round shape to angry triangles.

Nana turned a little to get a better look at Bit. To her, he looked like a regular robot: He had a shimmery, glossy look to him she hadn't seen on any other machines and his responses were a lot quicker and very human-like, but other than that he looked like nothing special.

"What do you mean when you say you're a fairy? No offense, but you don't look anything like the fairies I've ever seen in picture books or on tv."

"I am a fairy in that I am a companion to the Precure and will aid them no matter the cost! I am a loyal friend to you, and Saiko, and the other Precure!" He hovered a little off the stand. "And I can fly just like _real_ fairies do," he added quietly.

"There's other Precure?" Bit made a little jerky movement that Nana read as a nod.

"They became Precure at the same time you and Saiko did! Clairewood needs four warriors to protect it efficiently."

Nana recalled the event that had transpired only hours ago: her phone transforming, the little armband appearing, the light show when she transformed..

"Wait," she said frowning, "you were there with me and Saiko. You gave us our powers, didn't you? How did the other two become Precure? Are there more robots like you?"

"I am a fairy! And no, it's just me. I can make a hologram of myself using your phones. The other two Precure had the right potential to become Precure, so I chose them."

Nana thought for a bit. "Will we get to meet them? The other Precure I mean."

"The idea is that you work as a team, yes, but in the end it's all up to you. It might be best to figure out your abilities on your own for a bit. You're really lucky to have Saiko though! I bet it's super fun to save the city with a friend." Bit made a sound that resembled a giggle.

"You mentioned that before. What exactly are we saving the city from? I know Hera is a problem and everyone wants to get rid of her, even though she won't let us say that, but we can't exactly beat up the sky… Does Hera even have a physical body? I mean, she's an AI so she should have one somewhere but I have no idea where that could be."

"It's not Hera. Not yet. When I awoke, so did something else. But she awoke wrong. I don't know when she'll act, but when she does you need to be ready." Bit landed back on the desk.

"But now you need to go to sleep. You are a high school student and you need at least six hours of rest, eight being ideal! So I will not keep you up any longer with my stories." Nana gaped at the robot-fairy.

"You can't be serious! You're telling me all about how I need to be prepared for some kind of evil I need to defeat and then suddenly you say I should go to bed?! There's no way I can sleep now!"

"Make an attempt."

"No!" Nana picked Bit off the nightstand and looked into his bright blue eyes; which looked rather haughty at the moment. "Tell me more about this danger!"

"I will."

"Oh, good!"

"Tomorrow. Now I will give you the right example and go to sleep myself. Goodnight, Nana!"

Bit's eyes turned off, as did the little light under his body. Nana shook him, but to no avail. After a few minutes of trying to look for a reset button or some other way to wake Bit back up, she put him back on her nightstand, defeated.

That night she did not get eight hours of sleep, not even six. It felt like she had fallen asleep ten minutes ago when her alarm went off (which was a little machine shaped like a chick that jumped on her bed and chirped loudly as it was doing so) to signal it was time to get up. When she looked next to her, she noticed Bit was gone.

She ate breakfast by herself, examining her phone. It functioned the same way it had before Bit changed it, though it looked a lot flashier. All of her apps still worked, and it looked like she was still able to call people with it. When she held it over the bracelet on her arm however, the screen turned pink and a little white cat face appeared on the screen.

She looked around, to make sure nobody could see her, and then mumbled: "Precure, recharge."  
The phone started to glow and felt warm in her hand, on the screen a loading bar appeared. When it had fully loaded, Nana whispered: "Activate."

This time there was no lightshow. A bright pink light encompassed her and then exploded into a million tiny sparkles. Surprised it worked considering the lack of enthusiasm, she picked up her spoon and examined her reflection. Her hair was bright pink and her eyes had become a bright, unnatural shade of gold. Other than that she looked the same as always. _Everyone will recognize me_ , she thought. She wasn't sure how to feel about that.

Suddenly Bit's voice rang through the room.

" _Hello Nana! I am with Saiko right now!"_

" _Good morning, Nana,"_ said a quieter voice.

Nana looked at the gauntlet on her right arm, and saw Bit being projected out of the little white cat's eyes. He gasped.

" _Why are you transformed? Did something happen?!"_

Nana flushed. "Uh, no, I was just messing around."

Hurriedly she turned the cat's face on the gauntlet and just like that she was back to normal, her phone lying in front of her on the table.

" _I understand that you're curious, but just make sure nobody sees you when you transform,"_ Bit said, " _I've made you all undetectable for Hera, it's best we don't ruin my hard work with by being careless."_

Nana took a sip of her tea. "Yeah, how did you do that anyway? Can you override her control systems or something?"

" _It's a long story, but in short, I can! But I can't do it for the whole city. I am a small fairy and I have little power. But to Hera it'll look like you, Saiko, and the other two girls are just going about your normal business whenever you're really doing Precure stuff! She can't trace any calls you make to the other Precure and any messages you send about it, will be filtered out. You'll look like regular high school students to her!"_

Nana nearly dropped her cup.

"Wait, she's been reading our messages?!" Bit's projection nodded.

" _I imagine it has everything to do with being able to protect the city better, though I don't think she was supposed to be able to do this initially."_

"That witch…" Nana was seething. She could almost feel Hera's eyes burning in her back.

"Shouldn't you get ready to leave?" Saiko said.

Nana shot up from her chair. "Independence class! I totally forgot!"

This time she made it to school in time for Hera's speech. She also had a message on her phone from Hera, scolding her for being out past curfew. She supposed Bit had made it so Hera didn't know the policebots never found her and Saiko.

Her first class of the day wasn't a regular one. It was a special class for the students who had lost relatives thanks to the isolation, due to many parents and caretakers working out of town or not being inside of Clairewood when it happened. The whole class was a farce in Nana's opinion, she wasn't sure why she still went. The teacher was Miss Helding, who had been made a Docile shortly after the isolation.

Nana sat down in one of the chairs. All the desks had been moved out of the way and the chairs had been put in a circle. The class counted fifteen people, all third and fourth years. This wasn't the only independence class and there would've been even more if students didn't simply refuse to attend them. If everyone was obligated to go to independence class, almost the entire school would have to go, Nana thought.

There were less students than last time. Miss Helding didn't acknowledge this, though she did seem to tap a note on her tablet. "Good morning, everyone. I'm glad to see you all chose to attend again this week." Some students mumbled a greeting, but most stayed quiet.

"I thought it'd be good to start with how you've been doing this week." It had been the same way for three weeks, since the class started.

The first girl on Miss Helding's left immediately started to cry, like she had done weeks previous. Miss Helding put her arms around the shoulders of the girl and held her close, a pained expression on her face.

Nana felt a pang of guilt. Most people were very indifferent during independence class, and Helding might be a Docile but the pain on her face was real.

When the girl had calmed down a bit, they moved to the girl next to her. She was rather short and had a broad build. She had her arms crossed in front of her chest and the defiant expression she had when she walked into the room was still on her face. The blue and silver striped ribbon on her collar signified that she was a third year.

"Genevieve," miss Helding started, "how have you been doing this week?"

Genevieve rolled her eyes and looked at the floor in front of her. "It's still the same. Mèmére is still gone. I cook by myself cos my brother is too busy to help."

She looked up at Miss Helding. "When am I gonna get my grandmother back?"

Genevieve had asked this question every week.

"Hera is working on establishing a connection to the outside world, please be a little patient."

Miss Helding had given the same answer every week.

Genevieve opened her mouth, hesitated, then closed it again. She resumed staring at the floor.

When Miss Helding reached Nana, her face cleared up a little. "I've got great news for you! Your father's training is going well, and he should return to you in a few weeks." Wow, that really was good news.

"I wouldn't call turning someone into a Docile training," Genevieve suddenly spoke up. She was scratching her neck and looking up at the ceiling. She was defiant, but clearly felt uncomfortable about speaking her mind. Nana on the other hand, did not.

"He's not being turned into a Docile! All police officers have training, it's to deal with Clairewood being isolated now. They'll have a lot more responsibilities now they can't use reinforcements!" Nana bit back.

Genevieve raised her eyebrows. "You really believe that?" She still avoided looking at Nana. This pissed her off.

"If you're gonna ridicule me, don't be a coward and look me in the eyes! Making someone into a Docile doesn't take a month, let alone two. It's just training!"

"Sure, you keep believing that," Genevieve replied, still not looking up. Nana made a move to get up, but Miss Helding protested.

"Girls, please calm down. Getting the Docile enhancement isn't a bad thing, it helps keep the peace. And let's not speculate about things we don't know anything about," she said to Genevieve with a smile.

You could always tell when Hera spoke through a Docile, Nana found. The rings in their eyes shone a little brighter and their smiles never reached their eyes.

* * *

"How was independence class?" Saiko asked her the next lesson. Nana noticed she had tied a ribbon around the bracelet on her right arm.

"Pointless, as usual. Got in a bit of a spat with that third year girl."

"Genevieve? What happened this time?"

"She said Dad was a Docile. Oh!" Nana had completely forgotten what Miss Helding had told her thanks to this little squabble. "Dad's gonna come back from training in a few weeks!"

Saiko smiled, though she also looked slightly worried. "That's great! But…" She looked around, then lowered her voice. "...Aren't you afraid Hera will have changed him?"

Nana shook her head. "Dad is tough. I bet if Hera tried to indoctrinate him, he'd just nod and pretend he believes her. He isn't the commissioner for nothing!"

[break]

She held her hands in front of her, and then at the book next to her on the floor. They looked generally the same: Five digits on each hand, eight fingers and two thumbs, the right amount of joints. Only the colour was horribly off. The pictures in the magazine showed a warm tone, her own hands were silver. The joints were also very clearly visible in her hands when she turned them over; little deep-blue spheres. Her hands reflected light very well, the hand in the book didn't look like it would.

Elleanor had woken up only a day ago, and lots of things in this world were still new to her. Oddly enough, she also seemed to know a lot of stuff already.

"It's because you're a robot, you are very smart," her mother had told her.

She had, however, not known what people really looked like, outside of a general idea. Nor animals. She also couldn't read.

Her mother had reacted in surprise when she told her this.

"Some of your systems must be damaged. But that's okay! There is plenty of time to learn. I know you can do it, my daughter."

Being called "my daughter" had become very strange to her after a while. She told her mother, "I think my name is Elleanor," and so her mother had started calling her this, though she still said  
'daughter' occasionally.

She picked up the book and turned the page. The next page had no pictures whatsoever. She held the book closer to her face and squinted really hard, but it was no use: She had no idea what the little black scribbles on the pages meant. She let out a sigh and closed the book.

This one had way too many words, she liked the ones that were mostly pictures a lot better. She got up and walked to the living room, where her mother was.

"Mom, I want to learn how to read," she said, the book still in her hands.

"Of course, honey! Do you want a chip for the local language or one that has all the languages in the world on it?"

Elleanor shook her head. "I don't want to know everything right away. I want to learn how to read like humans do!" She held the book in front of her.

"Sweetie, why would you want to learn in such an unnecessarily complicated way? You have systems specially designed to make you gather information within seconds where it takes a human months, maybe even years!"

Elleanor debated for a second. "The human way seems more fun," she eventually said. Her mother sighed.

"Well, it's your choice. Why don't you go into the city and find a school? That's how humans learn."

"Outside? But I've never been!"

"Well, once has got to be the first time. Don't worry dear, no matter where you are, I'm always watching over you. But please behave!"

* * *

Nana and Saiko walked into their next class, quietly discussing how and if Nana should hide her bracelet.

"We still look the same except for our hair and eye colour, people are gonna recognize us anyway so I don't really see the use of hiding it."

"But Bit said not to call each other our real names when we're transformed, and superheroes usually have secret identities, right?"

They sat down in their usual spots, and Nana pulled her sleeve over the bracelet. Nobody had commented on it yet today, so she figured no one had noticed it anyway.

"Alright everyone, today it's time for practicing conversations. Please find yourself a partner and turn to page 231 for your text."

Nana turned to Saiko by default and started going through the pages.

"Oh, it's a restaurant situation. Shall I be the server?" Saiko said.

Saiko enjoyed language classes, Nana did not. She was alright with the language she spoke, but not foreign ones. With how advanced Clairewood was in technology it seemed pretty pointless to her anyway, there were several kinds of translators on the market that could translate any language in seconds.

She cleared her throat. "Okay, here we go. Achtung, Herr Ober,"

Saiko let out a giggle. "Herr Ober? Nana, I'm a-"

Crash.

Nana looked up, and several students turned to look at the window. There stood a girl amongst the glass shards that were spread across the floor. With the sun on her back it was hard to make her out properly, though to Nana it seemed like her skin was silver. Her eyes shone and lit up part of her face. _A robot?_

As she walked into the room Nana saw she had been correct. The robot girl appeared to be wearing the Clairewood High uniform, though she wasn't wearing a shirt under her blazer and she wore about three different ribbons around her neck.

She sat down at an empty desk and looked up at the teacher expectantly.

The room was dead silent.

"Well? Are you gonna teach us something?" When she didn't get an answer, she frowned. "You are the teacher, right?" She picked up the language book on her desk and started to flip through it.

"Ugh, this still makes no sense." She closed the book.

"Oh, I forgot to introduce myself!" Everyone's eyes followed her as she walked up to the smartboard. She touched the screen lightly. A few letters appeared on the screen. She turned to face the class again.

"My name is Elleanor. I came here because I want to learn how to read! Mom says humans are stupid and slow but I want to learn like you do anyway!"

Finally one male student in the front row broke the silence.

"If your name is Elleanor, why does the board say Earifhal…?"

Elleanor couldn't flush red seeing as her face was made of some kind of metal, but Nana was sure she would have if she could. At the least, she looked very upset.

"I'm here to learn! Gosh, you people are super mean!"

"You destroyed a window," another boy said.

"How else was I supposed to enter? You people are too stupid to put a door on the outside of the building, of course I'm gonna enter another way!"

Elleanor held up her hand. Her fingertips seemed to be glowing blue, and a small chip appeared in the palm of her hand.

"I don't want to be here anymore, I hate all of you!"

She touched the board with her shiny hand. It distorted, like a ripple on water. Blue letters and numbers rapidly encompassed the board. Wires shot out of it, tangling together to form limbs.

Elleanor ran out of the building, again through a window.

The board wrenched itself loose from the wall and followed her outside, students had to leap out of the way to not get hit by its cables.

"Guten… Morgen," the board said. "Wie geht.. Es Ihnen…"

From the screaming she heard through the ceiling several seconds later, Nana gathered the smartboard was making its way up to the roof. She got up and pulled Saiko outside into the hall. Nobody paid attention to them, everyone was too busy running away or still inside the classroom, frozen in either fear or simply stunned by the bizarre events that just took place.

"Where's Bit?" Nana hissed.

"He said he was gonna visit another Cure while we were in school! What do we do?"

Thoughts went through her head rapidly. How were they supposed to do anything if they didn't even know how to fight? Maybe there was a way to call Bit?

"Let's just get to the roof first and transform!"

* * *

To her surprise, they found not only the rampaging smartboard and Elleanor, but also Bit on the roof.

"I sensed the danger and came over right away!" He exclaimed.

"You!" Elleanor yelled as she pointed at Bit. "I remember you! You were in my house, and then you ran! You made mom really upset!"

Bit looked angry. "You shouldn't be here! Look at all the damage you've caused!"

Nana and Saiko looked at each other while the two bots squabbled. "Let's just transform," Nana said a little awkwardly.

"Precure, recharge! ...Activate!"

"The hero who short-circuits all evil-doers, Cure Spark!"

"The hero who dreams of the future, Cure Volt!"

Volt turned to Spark. "Okay, what do we do now?"

Bit and Elleanor were still shouting at each other. The smartboard stood behind Elleanor, angrily waving its cables while spouting German phrases.

Nana rolled her eyes. "I'm just gonna go over there and punch it." She started to run and noticed everything came closer a lot quicker than she expected.

Instead of punching the board, she collided with it.

"What are you doing?" She heard Bit say as she quickly scrambled off the fallen board.

"GUTEN MORGEN," it said.

"I am trying to fight a monster that destroyed half my school while you're having a shouting match with its creator! AAGH!" The board hit Spark with one of its cable arms, and she slammed face first into the floor. Volt shrieked.

Spark rubbed her nose as she got up. _That hurt a lot less than it should've. I don't even have a nosebleed…_

From the corner of her eye she saw Volt run up to the board and kick it. The screen cracked, and the board wailed, "Entschuldigung! Ich möchte gern etwas trinken, bitte!"

Volt ran over to Spark and helped her up. "I can feel my heart pounding in my throat, I think I'm gonna faint," she said. Her face was red and her hands were trembling, though the sprint and kick didn't seem to have tired her out.

"Get up!" Elleanor yelled at the board.

"Bockwurst," it mumbled as it planted several of its cables into the roof.

Bit hovered over to the two Cures. "Please keep in mind your punches and kicks are a lot stronger when you're Precures! And you won't get hurt as quickly."

"You couldn't have told us earlier?" Spark said, slightly irritated. "So now we're up to date, do we just punch the board to scrap, or...?"

Bit shook his head. "That board is glitched, it'll keep repairing itself unless you purify it. Once you've damaged it enough, say-"

Volt and Spark didn't hear what Bit said after that as a giant mangle of cables swiped them both off the building. Volt desperately clawed at the empty air between her and Spark as they tumbled down.

"You can fly!" Bit yelled through the receiver on Spark's arm. "Just believe you won't fall, and you won't!"

Spark squeezed her eyes shut and thought about flying as hard as she could. She thought of birds, of balloons, planes, Bit…

And then she noticed she no longer felt the air rustling her hair. She opened her eyes and found herself hovering in mid-air.

For a split second, she saw a dozen pairs of eyes looking at her through the glass windows of the classroom she was flying in front of; then Volt fell on her.

Spark caught her before she could fall any further, and flew back up the building.

"It's hard to think of flying when you think you're gonna be dead in a second," Volt mumbled, embarrassed.

"When I get to the top of the building, I'm gonna let you go," Spark said, looking up at the sky.

"No!" Volt yelped. "What if I fall again?"

"You won't. I know you can do it. I'll fly a little above the roof, and then I'll let you go, and then we'll fly fist first into the board, okay?"

Volt took a second to answer. Then she silently nodded.

It happened exactly as Spark had planned. When they made impact with the board, its screen shattered into a million pieces, and it stumbled off the roof.

"No!" Elleanor shouted.

"Immer geradeaus," the board said as it tumbled off the side. Elleanor grabbed one of its cables before it slid off the roof and pulled on it as hard as she could.

"How do we purify it?" Spark asked Bit. The board was climbing back onto the roof, with Elleanor's help.

"Point at it with the arm your gauntlet is on, and shout: 'Precure, Charge Up'!"

The Precure looked at each other, and nodded. Then they did as Bit had told them.

"Precure, Charge Up!" The cat faces on their armor began to glow, as did their gauntlets and the lights on their shoulder pads.

"Kann ich mit die Karte zahlen?" The board said confused, while green and pink lights started to cover its body. Elleanor backed away from the board, shock on her face.

"Now! Say: 'Override'!"

They shouted "Override" in unison, and the board was hit with a beam shot from their gauntlets.

The light from the beam was blinding. When Spark could see again, the board was lying still on the rooftop. Most of the cables had disappeared, and the screen was no longer cracked.

Elleanor had also disappeared.

Volt made a small jump. "We did it! Are you proud of us, Bit?"

Spark walked over the screen and examined it. It looked like a regular smartboard now. _How are they gonna get it off the roof?_

Right when she was about to walk away from it she noticed something on the edge of the screen. She knelt down to pick it up, and turned it over in her hand.

"Hey Bit?" The little robot fairy flew over to Spark.

"What's this?" She held up a small, green and gold striped chip.

"Hey, isn't that the thing Elleanor was holding before the smartboard came to life?" Volt said to her right. Bit gasped.

"That's mine!" A little metal wire extended from Bit's back, and he grabbed the chip. Then a small compartment opened on the top of his head, and he dropped it in there. For a moment his eyes were replaced with numbers rapidly flashing across his visor, similar to what had happened to the smartboard.

"Ah, I remember something new! Elleanor is a daughter! And she's a robot with special powers!"

Spark frowned. "Wow, it's not like we just saw that for ourselves. Why can you implant a thing that came from a mad smartboard into your head?"

"I don't know why Elleanor had it, but that chip is a part of me. She must have some kind of power to corrupt it to make technology go mad… Sort of like a glitch. It seems you two using your purifying move made it go back to normal. But that little chip wasn't the only one that's missing from my memory… There's actually a lot I don't remember." Bit sighed.

Spark opened her mouth to speak, but Volt tapped her on the shoulder.

"Shouldn't we get back to class? People are gonna start missing us once the commotion died down."

"Oh snap, you're right!" They hurried back down, de-transforming when they entered the building.

They were sent home a few minutes after arriving back at their classroom, where people were still running around confused and unsure of what to do. Thinking about it, Nana realised she and Saiko hadn't been gone for very long. It had been fifteen minutes at most.

"There was a girl flying in front of the window, I swear!" She heard one of her classmates yelling at the teacher.

"She was in pink and she had cat ears, and she went to the roof! I'm gonna go take a look!" The teacher grabbed the boy's arm when he tried to bolt out of the room.

"No, you are not. You are staying here until the police shows up to assess the situation. A smartboard just ran amok and I'm not gonna have any of you getting hurt in some freak accident."

When the policebots arrived, Nana's class and several others were dismissed. When she went to pick up her bag, she noticed it had become a lot heavier. When she peeked into it, she saw two blue shiny eyes looking up at her. Without saying anything, she slung the bag over her shoulder and walked out of the classroom, Saiko beside her.

* * *

"So part of you is missing?" Nana asked Bit as they walked home. It was quite a way, but since it was early in the afternoon and it was easier to talk to Bit this way they decided against taking the bus.

"Yes," Bit said from within Nana's open backpack. "I woke up yesterday. It was dark where I was, and there were bits of metal scattered all around me. It was really scary! I got out of there as quickly as I could, and all I knew was that I had to find the Pretty Cure as quickly as possible."

"Is that all you remember?" Saiko asked.

"I remember Hera. I know that she's done something bad, but I don't know why or how I know. I also know Clairewood. I know Elleanor is a daughter, and I know she's going to be a lot of trouble! But I don't know why, or whose daughter she is. And I know I was made by someone. But not who, or what."

Nana let out a sigh. "Wow, that's more questions than answers! You insist on us calling you a fairy, but you just said someone made you. Wouldn't that make you a robot, at least a teensie tiny bit?" she said, smiling.

"I know that I am a fairy, even if I just remembered someone made me. I have something no other robot has. I have a gift!"

He flew out of Nana's bag and in front of the girls. "I am a fairy, because I can do magic!"


	3. Chapter 3: The Violet Menace

_[Next week is very very busy around this time, so I'm not sure I'll get chapter 4 up then, sorry! Again a thank you to Nexus for beta-reading, and Missmellifluous for Yon's band name, heh]_

 **3\. A Shave and a Haircut**

It was the weekend. It had been a chaotic week for Nana, what with being given special powers by a tiny sentient robot fairy and the sudden appearance of Elleanor. The days after the incident with the smartboard nothing out of the ordinary had happened, to Nana's relief. Bit warned her to keep her guard up; just because Elleanor hadn't done anything else that week, didn't mean their troubles were over.

The doorbell rang. Nana got up from the kitchen table to answer it. At first sight, it seemed nobody was there, but when she leaned out the door she saw Saiko, standing back a little and staring up at the storefront next to the Mori residence.

"If it has a face, it's probably Mori's," she read aloud, with a slight frown on her face.

Nana sighed and shook her head.

"Just ignore that. I can't believe they actually put that on the store…"

Saiko walked in and Nana went to open the fridge to get them some refreshments. To her relief Mei, It's Cold In Here wasn't on the shelf anymore.

"Hello Saiko!" Bit greeted, who sat on the table. Nana's brothers were at work, so Bit could freely roam the house.

"Have you learned anything new about yourself?" Saiko asked after sitting down at the table.  
Bit shook his head.

"I got all the information from the chip the moment I installed it. So all I know is that Elleanor is a daughter, and that I can do magic."

"Well, that's not really a surprise," Nana said, sitting down across from Saiko. "Technology is advanced in Clairewood, but not so advanced phones can spontaneously transform, let alone turn you into a Pretty Cure."

"I know I've heard of them before we became Precure ourselves, just not where," Saiko said.

Nana nodded. "Me too. I think there were a few of them who saved a country, but it was a really long time ago. I barely remember any of it. Do you, Bit?"

Once again Bit shook his head.

"Precure are warriors who can help with any evil. They're not all connected to each other, so I don't know about anyone except for you four."

They heard a key turning in the front door.

"Bit, hide, quick!" Bit flew into the hallway, to Nana's room. In his hurry he knocked the little cushion he was resting on from the table.

"We're home! Oh hi, Saiko." Shuya walked in, with him was a girl. Her hair was a dark shade of blue and spiky at the ends, with here and there little little strands of electric blue and bubblegum pink. She smiled when she saw Nana.

"Yon!" Nana exclaimed.

"Hey Nana. Long time no see." She sat down next to Nana at the table.

Shuya meanwhile fumbled with a little robot at the counter. He poured water in it, then sat it down on the counter. After a few seconds it began to shake. Its little eyes slowly started to change from red to green. Nana had seen the little tea brewing bot before. Its main body was brown with a pattern of coffee beans, and it had little extra compartments for different types of tea. It used to talk, but for once her brothers actually agreed that it speaking in a strong cockney accent was tacky, so now it was silent except for a little melody it would play when it was done. It was pretty cute, but the monocle was a little too much, in her opinion.

"I know I haven't really kept in contact, but we were busy writing new music."

"Ooh! Can I hear?"

Yon smiled and nodded. "Of course! You're our biggest fan after all. I actually gave your brothers a little preview already." She glanced at Shuya, but he didn't react.

"We uh, have a few little creative differences. But don't worry, we'll work it out."

Yon was the singer and composer of a band which bought their sound equipment from Nana's brothers.

They were not a particularly well known band; it was a hobby for its members as they didn't make enough money to live off it, but Nana loved their music. It was, however, a little embarrassing to tell people her favourite band's name was 'Hibiscus Hell Juice'.

"So, how about that thing that happened at your school last week? That was so bizarre!"

Nana felt a jolt of energy go through her. Her brothers had discussed the Pretty Cure in excessive detail after the event at her school (Shuya mainly talked about Elleanor and the smartboard and how they could be so advanced, while You was mostly wondering how they could make something profitable based on the Precure) and it had been really hard not to accidentally say something only a Pretty Cure could know.

It had been difficult, not being able to discuss the feeling of flying and purifying monsters with anyone but Saiko and Bit. If anything, she'd have loved to tell Yon about it.

"Someone actually filmed it, when they fell down the building," Yon said as she took out her phone. Saiko shot Nana a scared look.

"Look!" She held out her phone so Nana and Saiko could see the video. It was filmed from inside a classroom. It took her a while, but then Nana recognized it as the moment she caught Cure Volt. She squinted.

"What's that in front of their faces?"

"It's weird, isn't it? Its super distorted but if you pause it here…" Yon turned her phone around for a second and tapped the screen, "...You'll see they're wearing cat masks!"

It didn't really look like a mask, but some kind of brightly coloured canvas of blocks was hiding Spark and Volt's faces. And Yon was right, when paused it did appear the distortions had pointy ears and even a pair of big, cat-like eyes. _So that is how other people see us._

"They're super cool! I wonder if they'll take down Hera eventually."

"Yon!" Shuya turned around so fast he spilled hot tea on his arm.

"Sorry," Yon mumbled, clearly insincere as she couldn't stop herself rolling her eyes.

"Anyway, what're you two up to today?" She said, trying to lighten the mood while Shuya cooled his burnt arm with a wet towel.

"Oh, we weren't planning on doing anything special," Nana said, fidgeting with her hair.  
"I think I need to cut it," she added, examining her bangs.

"Oh, you want to go to the hair salon?" Saiko asked.

"That's not really a thing to do with friends. Especially if you're gonna dye it pink again. Saiko would have to wait for hours!" Yon exclaimed.

"Oh no no, I cut my hair myself!" Nana said with a smile as she got up.

"Not at the kitchen table!" Shuya said as he finally sat down and handed Yon a cup of tea.

"Of course not. Gosh, you're nothing but complaints today," Nana said as she ran to the bathroom.

Her blonde hair was very short, so Nana never bothered going to a hairdresser to cut her hair. In Clairewood most hairdressers were robots now anyway, and she didn't really want a machine that close to her head with a sharp pair of scissors.

While cutting, she could still hear the conversation coming from the kitchen.

"The isolation sucks, but it's actually got us booked more because there's fewer bands to choose from," she heard Yon say.

"Oh, that's… Good, I guess?" Saiko was harder to make out but her insecurity now she was with two people she wasn't very familiar with shone through in her voice. _I shouldn't have left her by herself. But I'm only a room away and Yon and Shuya are really nice…_

"We're actually booked to open for a really big act!"

Yon again. Which act? Nana couldn't think of many groups left in Clairewood that weren't virtual bands or DJs.

Nana could hear Yon whisper something unintelligible.

Then, suddenly, Saiko exclaimed: "SORELLA?!"

Nana turned her head in surprise.

Oh no.

She slowly took the scissors away from her bangs but the little bit of hair that fell down before her eyes confirmed her fear. She looked back into the mirror.

"Nooooo…"

About a quarter of her bangs were an inch shorter than the rest. She couldn't use the rest of her hair to cover the mistake, and if she'd cut all of her bangs the same length she'd look like an imbecile.

"What's wrong?" She heard Shuya call from the kitchen. When she walked back in, he stifled a laugh. Yon made a pained expression.

"Don't worry, you can hardly see it," Saiko started. When she saw Nana wasn't convinced, she quickly added, "No, that's not true, I'm sorry."

"It's okay! Just say it's a social statement!" Yon banged a fist on the table. Her tea slopped onto the table, to Shuya's visible annoyance.

"Can you fix it?" Nana said, looking to Shuya, who was now standing, with a brand new towel in his hand for the table instead of his arm this time. He examined her forehead for a moment, and then sighed.

"Sorry Nana, I think it's best you go to an actual hairdresser with this."

"But I don't want a robot near my head!"

"There's robots flying around your head every day in this house. You'll be fine!"

"But what if it malfunctions and cuts me?"

"That won't happen, don't be silly!"

Saiko and Yon got up. "I'll go with you!" Yon said happily. "I'll take you to the salon I go to. They can do this," she grabbed a lock of her own hair and held it out, as if to show it off, "so clearly they're very good!"

* * *

" _She was in a tow.. A tower. And she was allone_.. No wait, that's two words: _She was all alone_."

Elleanor was sitting in her room, a book in her lap. She knew this story already, as it had lots of pictures so she didn't really need the words to understand it, but this was the first time she tried to actually read it. Saying the words out loud helped, she found.

The name of the story had given her some trouble; it was long and stupid and not even a real word. She was still not sure if she was pronouncing it right.

" _Rapunzel, Rapunzel_ … Why does it say it twice? Well, whatever. _Let down your hair!_ "

She looked at the picture on the page where the princess in the tower threw her hair out of the tower window. It made it all the way to the ground.

" _The prince begins to climb the hair to res_ … To reskoo? Reskew? Oh, _rescue_! _The princess_."  
That confused her. She touched her own hair. It was made out of metal, like the rest of her body. It also wasn't particularly long.

"Wouldn't he slide right off?"

"Human hair is different from yours," her mother said from the other room. "It's very thin, but it's strong for how frail it looks."

"So you could climb it?"

"If it is long enough, yes. If you braid it, it'd be a bit like a rope. But it'd hurt the human it belongs to a lot, so don't do it!"

"I wasn't gonna!" She looked at the picture again. Rapunzel's hair looked like it was made out of gold. She wondered if she could change her hairstyle. She liked her hair, but now she was kind of sad she couldn't change it from the bob it was fashioned into.

"Mom, could you give me human hair?"

Her mother let out a small laugh.

"I'm sorry dear, I'm afraid I can't. But your own hair suits you really well, why do you want to change it?"

"It's not fair! They get to do whatever they want with their hair, but I don't?"

"Now now, Elleanor, don't be childish! You're built to resemble a teenager. Maybe you could visit a hairdresser in Clairewood and see what they can do for you? They're robots too. Of course they're not as advanced as us, but you could give it a try."

Elleanor groaned. "I don't really like Clairewood. The last time I went people were really mean, and then the Precure beat up my friend."

"You didn't behave very well though, did you? And your friend destroyed part of the school, the Precure only wanted to help."

"Fine," Elleanor said while getting up. "I'll give it another try. The city did look pretty fun when I walked through it last time, I guess."

* * *

"Here we are!" Yon said as she stopped in front of a small shop with a big glass window. Inside were people on chairs and human-like robots which were attending to them. Nana felt uneasy.

"Are you sure there's no human hairdressers?" she croaked.

Yon punched Nana's shoulder playfully.

"Come on, Nana! Aren't you tough? There are human hairdressers too, but come on, at least try it!" Yon looked Nana in the eyes. "If you do, I'll give you something cool afterwards."

Nana rolled her eyes. "I'm sixteen, not ten."

Yon blushed and awkwardly scratched her ear. "Yeah well, once you pass twenty, all these teen ages blend together. Wait 'til you get there, you'll see!"

Saiko quickly hopped aside as Yon suddenly moved behind Nana and started pushing her into the salon.

"Come on come on, someone needs to get their hair fixed!"

* * *

It didn't take very long until Nana could take a seat.

"Okay, how does this work," she said as Yon and Saiko stood on each side of her.

"First you put this on," Saiko said as she tied a black cape around Nana's neck.

"You've been here too?"

Saiko nodded. "A few times. They're really precise, it's great!"

"See, Saiko isn't afraid of them!"

"Shush! Not the whole salon needs to hear," Nana hissed while she turned beet red.

She looked in the mirror and saw words had appeared on it.

[Good day. What would you like today?]

Under the greeting were a bunch of options. Short hair, long hair, dyeing, bangs, fixing mistakes…

"Fixing mistakes?"

"Yeah, I think it's specifically meant for kids who got too enthusiastic with a pair of scissors at home. But it works for you too, in this case."

"I wanna go home," Nana grumbled as she pressed the words on the mirror.

[Please circle the problem areas.]

Yon drew a circle on the mirror around Nana's bangs.

[Please wait a moment while we find you hairstyles.]

"Whoa," Nana exclaimed as the mirror projected a different hairstyle on her head. "This is super weird," she said while turning her head to examine the style better.

"Your brothers should look into augmented reality, it's really neat. Lots of bands use it, too!" Yon said while cycling through the different hairstyles the mirror showed. "How about this one?"

The whole hairstyle was a little shorter than she was used to, but it did make her bangs stand out less. Nana considered it for a moment.

"I think it looks nice!" Saiko said, smiling. Nana looked at her, still a little uncertain, but then nodded. "I guess that one's fine…" She moved a trembling hand to the confirm button on the screen.

[Hairstyle confirmed. Would you like anything else done?]

"Might as well dye it pink while we're here," Yon said as she shrugged.

"Oh no, I don't think that's a good idea. I uh, I mean I think I like to be blonde! For a while."

"Alright. Let's confirm!" Yon pressed the button, and the interface on the mirror disappeared. It looked like a regular mirror now. Yon and Saiko stepped aside to make space for the hairdresser robot which stopped behind Nana's chair. It looked harmless enough, but Nana was still wary.  
"Please keep your chin up," The hairdresser said.

She heard Yon laugh. "Open your eyes, you look really silly."

The robot was done quickly enough, while Nana sat grasping the arms of the chair with the biggest scowl she'd ever worn on her face.

The robot pulled out a mirror and moved it around behind her head.

"It is done! Are you satisfied?"

"Uh, yeah. Th-thank you," Nana said with slightly raised eyebrows as she examined her new hairstyle.

"Please pay at the counter," the bot said as it moved to the next customer.

"Well then! That wasn't so hard, was it?" Yon said as Nana got out of the chair, a new scowl appearing on her face.

"Sixteen, Yon. _Sixteen_ , not ten."

"What do you mean you can't help me? You're made out of metal yourself!"

A familiar voice sounded over any other noise in the salon, which grew noticeably more quiet at the sudden commotion.

Nana and Saiko turned to the source of the noise and, not much to their surprise, there stood a familiar silver girl, arguing furiously with one of the hairdressers.

"Please remove yourself from the salon."

"How dare you! You're a robot just like me but you're just as mean as my classmates!"

"What do we do," Saiko whispered to Nana.

"I don't know," she whispered back, "technically she hasn't done anything wrong yet."

It was as if timed: Elleanor's hand started to glow like it had in the classroom.

"Maybe if I do this, you'll help me!" She exclaimed as she put her hand on the hairdresser. A ripple full of blue letters and numbers went over the hairdresser, just like it had with the smartboard.  
Unlike the smartboard however, the hairdresser grew in size. Cables sprouted out of its sides, which formed an additional two pair of arms which ended in various cutting utensils instead of hands.

In the ensuing confusion no one noticed the two girls running into the maintenance room, not even Yon.

"The hero who short-circuits all evildoers, Cure Spark!"

"The here who dreams of the future, Cure Volt!"

"Ugh, not you two again!" Elleanor exclaimed. "I'm just trying to get a haircut."

"You don't have hair," Spark said bluntly. "Also, your Glitch is destroying the equipment."

The Glitched hairdresser was furiously scratching up one of the mirrors in what seemed to be an attempt to cut its own hair.

"It's just confused! I'm gonna send it after you if you keep being mean!"

"Um, excuse me," someone said from the back of the salon.

Spark and Volt turned around.

The salon was now largely empty, though a few people had stayed behind and were huddled in the corner, two of them filming the ordeal with their phones. Yon was among them, though she wasn't filming, slowly taking a few steps forward. Spark's heart was pounding in her throat: Had she recognised them?

"What's your name?" Yon smiled at Elleanor, who looked a little confused.

"It's Elleanor," she answered warily.

"Elleanor? That's a nice name! Mind if I call you Ellie?"

Spark rolled her eyes. "She's not ten, Y-uhhh, random citizen."

Elleanor however, seemed not to mind. She even seemed to cheer up a bit.

"Ellie? I like that, I think I'll call myself that from now on."

Suddenly she pointed at Spark and Volt, her other hand balled into a fist. "You can't call me that, because I don't like you!"

"Ellie," Spark said.

"Spark! Don't make her mad for no reason," Volt urged, grabbing Spark's arm.

Spark shook her arm loose. "Stop breaking stuff, you're endangering people!"

"Maybe you could go to Mori's? They specialize in cute robots, maybe they can help you!" Yon said, trying to lighten the atmosphere in the room.

"Cute robots?"

Elleanor put her hands up to her face, as if to feel the non-existent warmth coming off her cold, metal cheeks. "You think I'm cute?"

"Maybe we can resolve this without a fight," Volt whispered to Spark, now that Ellie wasn't paying attention.

"But Bit says Ellie is bad, and she's Hera's daughter!" Spark raised her voice, to which Volt frantically tried to shush her.

"We don't know that, Bit never said she was," Volt reasoned.

"Oh come on, who else could it be?" Spark said, still rather loudly.

"Wait," Yon said, still looking at Elleanor. "You're Hera's daughter?"

Ellie looked confused, and nodded. "Yes, she's my mom. She's really nice to me, and she cares about all of you, too! I don't know why though, I think most people are rude and stupid."

Yon's demeanor changed entirely. The friendly smile on her face disappeared, and she straightened her back and crossed her arms.

"If she cares, why did she lock us away from the rest of the world?"

Ellie looked even more confused. She didn't seem to understand why Yon suddenly changed her tone. "Because the outside is dangerous. Mom can't monitor that far away, Clairewood is her home."

Yon scoffed when Ellie said _monitor_. Ellie flinched.

"Why does she take away people's free will?"

"She doesn't do that, she-"

"She suppresses people's thoughts, that's the same thing!"

"It's because you people endanger each other sometimes! She does it because she loves you!"

Ellie sounded distraught. "I thought you were nice, but you're the meanest human I've met so far!"

She shot a look at the Pretty Cure, who were still standing in the middle of the salon, unsure of what to do. "Except for you two. I hate you most! And that purple one, too!"

Volt and Spark looked at each other. Purple one?

The mirror made a loud banging noise as it fell on the ground, largely destroyed. The Glitch looked up at the Cures.

Ellie meanwhile looked from the Glitch, to Yon. As if commanded, the Glitch turned around and started towards her.

"No!" Spark yelled. She ran in front of Yon and turned to look over her shoulder. "Get out of here." Yon opened her mouth to say something but seemed to decide against it, and ran out of the salon.

The Glitch now looked at Spark, swinging its arms around menacingly. Before she could make a move, Volt jumped forward and tried to punch the Glitch. She hit it, but one of its blades grazed her arm. Small drops of blood started to well up. It was a pretty long cut, though it looked shallow. Volt didn't even seem to notice.

The Glitch stumbled, but caught itself and jabbed at Volt with a pair of scissors. Spark moved quickly as she grabbed its outstretched arm and swung the robot over her head, into the floor, which shook with the impact. Spark looked around for Ellie but didn't see her anywhere.

"Did she run again?"

Volt shrugged. "Let's just take care of this thing first," she replied.

Together they kicked the Glitch outside.

"I think that's enough," Spark said."Let's purify it."

A crowd had gathered, but the Cures didn't pay them any mind. They held out their gauntleted arms, and shouted in unison: "Precure, Charge Up!"

Once again green and pink lights surrounded them and the Glitch, which was trying to get up.

"Override!"

* * *

"Where were you guys? I've been out here looking for you! I missed the Pretty Cure battle because I couldn't find you!"

"We went outside the moment that machine started to freak out, we assumed you did the same. When we couldn't find you, we went looking further away because we thought maybe you'd ran. When we came back, this huge crowd had gathered. We could easily ask you the same."

Nana gaped at Saiko. That was a very impressive lie, Saiko's face was practically unreadable. She hoped Yon didn't see the bloodstain on her jacket sleeve.

Yon blushed. "I didn't go outside right away. Well, anyway, it doesn't matter. Let's get some icecream and talk about what just happened some more, that was insane!"

* * *

It turned out Yon's present was two tickets for the Sorella concert her band was opening for. Saiko nearly fainted when she handed her the ticket.

Nana said goodbye to Yon and Saiko and went on her way home. She found Bit in her room.

"Have you been here all day? We had a fight with Elleanor, you know."

"I wasn't! Another Cure requested my help so I went over to her. Her fight overlapped with yours, actually."

Nana frowned.

"Now I think of it, Ellie did mention something about a 'purple one'..."

"Man, what is even happening in this city," she heard You say from the living room. She walked out of her room, and saw her brother was watching the news. On the screen a reporter was talking, behind her a mostly destroyed storefront.

"That's the barbershop we made those beard-trimmers for. Look at it! There's nothing left of it," You said as he pointed at the screen.

"Today two hair salons were destroyed, one in the city centre and another in a residential area. Bob's Beards in the suburbs suffered very heavy damage. According to eyewitnesses, a robot girl got into a fight with the owner, after which one of the shaving machines malfunctioned. This is footage one of the patrons shot of the event, after which a girl entered the building who called herself Cure Static. The event is eerily similar to the incident that transpired at Clairewood High School just last week."

The screen showed fairly shaky footage of a robot frantically flailing around several razors. You sat up. "Hey, that's one of our machines! Oh man, this isn't good for business."

Suddenly the camera jerked around. It focused on a figure clad in purple. It looked like the figure had smashed straight through a wall to get into the shop. Just like Spark and Volt, it appeared she was wearing a mask shaped like a cat's face.

As the figure spoke, Nana noticed Bit floating a little to the left of her. _Oh, so that's where he was._

The video cut to other footage. The Cure was fighting the machine now. She threw several punches at its head before punching straight through its chest and tearing the inner wires out. Sparks flew everywhere. You gasped.

"Wow, she's brutal," Shuya commented as he joined in watching the tv. The program cut back to the presenter.

"The owner was happy with Cure Static's intervention, though he estimates she caused about half the damage to the shop. The owner stated he is mostly happy no one got hurt."

After that they showed a bit of footage of the salon Spark and Volt had fought at. Oddly enough there was no footage of Yon talking to Ellie. _Could Hera have stopped them from airing that?_

"We really have to do something with this Pretty Cure thing, Shuya."

Nana went back to her room as her brothers started discussing business opportunities once again.

"Cure Static, huh," she said to Bit as she closed the door behind her. "She looks pretty tough."

"She ripped that robot in half before purifying it. I told her she didn't need to do that, but she didn't listen. In the end, the result is the same, so I guess it doesn't matter."

"Torn in half?! Whoa." Nana sat down on her bed and rummaged in her pockets. "You don't mind seeing robots treated like that, despite being one yourself?"

"I am a FAIRY!" Bit said angrily. His eyes flickered red for a few seconds.

"There there, no need to get so angry, I didn't mean anything by it! Look, we got you another one of these!" Nana pulled a chip out of her pocket.

Bit quickly installed it as Nana patiently waited for its results.

"Hmmm," Bit said after a bit of silence. "There is a connection between Hera and Elleanor."

"What, that's it? We knew that from the start!"

"No, we didn't. They were assumptions. Now they are confirmed!" Bit said with a smile.

Nana frowned.

"Ellie literally told us Hera is her mother when we were in the salon."

"Oh," Bit said, sounding a bit dejected. "Well, there's still some more information to be discovered! Remember you're not the only ones who fought a Glitch today."

Nana fell down on her pillows with a sigh. "It better be something more useful and not Hera's shoe size or something."


	4. Chapter 4: The Civilian Reg Office

[and we're back]

 **4\. The Civilian Registration Office**

" _Good morning, it's Rae calling! It's time to wake up. Well, it's time for me to wake up, but I'd like it if you did too, then this morning will be a lot less lonely!_ "

Saiko opened her eyes, just a little. Oof, her back felt really stiff, and her cheek hurt; had she been leaning on her hand?

" _I am always the first one to wake up. It gives me some time for myself before I have to look after Mimi and Raina. Is there anyone you take care of?_ "

 _Anyone I take care of?_

She suddenly realised where she was. The little side room of her parents' animal shelter had a very clinical atmosphere as it had little decoration and the walls and floor were all white, and the one chair in the room looked a lot more comfortable than it really was.

Saiko turned to her right. There were the kittens she rescued with Nana a week before, fast asleep. She got up and walked over to them. As she was petting them (or rather, checking if they were still warm and breathing), one of the kittens let out a soft meow. She sighed, relieved.

Thankfully her father had helped her find a good foster mother for them. They now resided in a big plastic enclosure, full of cushions and toys. The kittens were still too small to play with them though, and the foster-mother spent most of her time in a small cat bed in the corner of the enclosure with her new babies.

Saiko's phone, which was resting on the arm of the chair, was still chattering.  
Rae kept going on about what she did for Mimi and Raina, and what she was going to have for breakfast.

 _I'm going to see her in a few weeks, I can't believe I'm really going to see her._

" _Well, enough out of me for now. I hope you have a great morning!"_

"Take care," Saiko said in chorus with Rae.

She had downloaded the custom Sorella alarm the moment it came out. Not only was it nice to hear from her favorite pop group first thing in the morning, but it also kept her from getting a fright whenever someone used her previous, generic alarm as a ringtone. Your body telling you to wake up when you're already awake was a very unpleasant sensation.

There was a different alarm depending on the hour you wanted to be woken up. Rae's alarm went off at 6, Raina's at 7, and Mimi's at 8.

Saiko woke up an hour too early every day just to hear Rae's greeting.

She stretched and rubbed her eyes. Maybe it'd be a good idea to go to bed for a couple of hours, it was Sunday anyway.

* * *

She wasn't really sure what time it was when she awoke a second time, a lot more rested, though she proceeded to tumble out of the bed in shock due to a small white robot hovering an inch above her face, shouting at her to wake up.

"Cure Static is planning on doing something really dangerous! I want you and Nana to go help!"

"I would've agreed to come without you shouting at me, Bit," Saiko answered as she rubbed her back.

"I am sorry. But Nana's alarm clock is very noisy and it seems to work on her," Bit said as Saiko turned him around to face the window.

"Not everyone sleeps as deeply as Nana Mori."

She quickly got dressed. Ever since they became Precure she liked to add something green to her outfits. Today she wore a green pair of tights with a white blouse and a black, pleated skirt. She tied a little green ribbon around her collar, and covered the Cure Bracelet with a black one. It looked a little bulky, but she hadn't found a better way to hide it yet.

"So I imagine Nana already knows?" Saiko mumbled, her speech slightly garbled thanks to the tie in her mouth, as she braided her hair.

"Yes!" Bit was still facing the window, to Saiko's amusement.

"You can turn around now."

"Oh, good!" Bit swiveled around, though the base of his body stayed in place. Only his face and his ears turned to face Saiko.

"I didn't know you could do that," she said, a little unnerved.

"Oh yes, it's really convenient," Bit's eyes changed to happy upside-down v's, "My face isn't attached to my hardware, so to speak. Well, it is, but..."

Bit proceeded to go on a long tangent about how exactly his face was controlled with all the various chips and cables in his body. When he was finished, he noticed Saiko's troubled expression.

"Is something wrong?"

"I… Don't really like thinking about machines. I mean, their inner workings. I'm fine when talking to one or using one as long as I don't think about how they really work."

She fumbled with the hair tie. "I just can't really cope with them moving like they're alive, but not having a soul…"

Bit considered for a moment.

"I don't really understand. But I do have a soul!" He hovered off the windowsill, into the middle of the room. "I'm not a robot, I'm a fairy! But I just have a robot body. Does that make you feel better?"

Saiko smiled awkwardly. "That's nice of you to try to make me feel better but I think it'll take a little more time for me to get over this."

Saiko's entire family was a little anti-robot. They saw the convenience of having all the advanced technology of Clairewood, but not how inventors seemed to make them more and more life-like. "Machines are machines, just like animals are animals," her father had said, "animal traits do not belong on machines."

Saiko's view on things was significantly less severe than her parents, though machines that acted too lifelike freaked her out a little. She hadn't told Bit as she didn't want to upset him, but there was something about Bit that made him less scary to her. Maybe it had to do with him being a fairy, she thought.

* * *

Nana was waiting in the business district of the city centre. Saiko didn't come here very often. The district had a very modern feel to it, moreso even than the rest of the city, almost all buildings were completely made out of glass and reached very high into the sky. Here and there were little bistros which had a slightly more stiff and unapproachable feel to them than the coffeeshops and cafes in the rest of the city. She almost felt like a tourist.

"Oh, you dressed to fit your new occupation?" Nana smiled.

Saiko looked at her feet.

"I just thought it'd be nice. You're not gonna wear any pink stuff, then? I think it'd suit you."

Nana shook her head. "I only have one pink sweater, and it's in the wash right now. But look, this is red!" She pointed at the graphic on her shirt. "That's basically the same thing."

"Static is closeby," Bit said, "please follow me."

They walked after the small white robot. Here and there drones were flying between the office buildings, just high enough to not interfere with traffic. Bit didn't really stand out here, as most drones had a sleek, white design. None of them had cat ears though.

"Can't you just tell us who the other two Cures are," Nana said after a few blocks.

"No! They specifically asked me to keep their identities a secret."

"Both of them?! How are we supposed to work together if they don't want to say who they are?"

"Did you tell them who we were?" Saiko asked.

"They didn't ask."

"The nerve-"

"Neither did we, until just now," Saiko interjected. Nana could get so hot headed over silly things.

"Here we are!" Bit stopped in front of a small, white building. Saiko wouldn't even have noticed it between all the office titans if Bit hadn't pointed it out. It looked like a garden shed in comparison to the glass giants surrounding it.

"Why is she here?" Nana asked, frowning at the small building. "Is there a Glitch inside?"

Bit shook his head.

"She is here because someone dear to her was invited to come here, and she followed them."

"What's so dangerous about that?"

"The invitation came from Hera, and Cure Static doesn't trust it. Neither did I, when I realised where she went."

Saiko felt the uneasiness rising in the pit of her stomach. _If it wasn't for Nana I don't think I'd have the courage to be a Pretty Cure._

Bit flew closer to the building, urging the girls to follow him. "The inside of this building is largely underground. And I sensed a very high amount of machine activity in there, while there was nothing in sight. Something definitely felt off in there. Which is why I came to get you!"

"Does Static know we're coming?" Saiko asked as she examined the door. When she tried to push it, it didn't open. How were they supposed to get in?

Bit moved to the door and flew down until he was level with the scanner next to it.

"She does, but she's requested you don't try to find out who she is. In turn she also won't try to find out who you are. So we'll have to be secretive in there. Ah, there we go!" The scanner buzzed, and when Saiko pushed the door again it opened.

Inside was an empty front desk. The TL light was very bright, but there were no windows. It actually reminded Saiko a little of the quarantine room back at home. In the middle of the room, next to the desk, was a flight of stairs that went into the ground.

Saiko looked at Nana. Nana shrugged. "I guess the only way is down." She started towards the stairs as if it was nothing, Bit close behind. It took her a moment, but then Saiko followed, figuring it was better to be with her friends than be left alone in this creepy little room.

The halls were well lit. Underground there actually were windows, but they all had their blinds drawn. It actually did kind of feel like an office building down here, though not a particularly inviting one.

They could hear faint talking from somewhere deeper inside the building. Occasionally they passed a wall with a big number on it. Saiko had noticed a blue board next to the visitor's desk in the room on the surface and now realised that it'd probably explained the number's significance. It felt like it was too late to walk back now, though.

"Do you know where she is, Bit?"

"I do! She's with a group of about twenty people that were all invited to come here."

Nana looked around suspiciously. "If I'd been in invited, I think I'd leave the moment I saw those stairs going into the ground."

Bit swiveled his face around again, to Saiko's discomfort.

"It's mandatory, they can't decline attendance, or they'd face repercussions. That's what Static's loved one's letter said."

"Wow, you sure take a lot of effort to hide her identity," Nana noted.

"I respect her wishes. Anyway, I'm not sure if it's smart to go right up to where they are, we don't want to be caught. It's probably best if we lag behind a little, to see what happens. Then we can intervene if necessary. Go left here!"

After a little while they arrived at a hall with a big, closed off room in it. This one did not have the blinds drawn, and through it they could see a bunch of people sitting inside. It was almost like they were waiting on an office appointment. Saiko couldn't see everyone, only the people sitting against the wall the furthest away from them, and one man leaning against the window in front.

Of the people she could see, none of them looked like Cure Static. From the footage it looked like she was rather short and stout, and all these people were either too tall or too skinny, or both. They also all looked to be adults. _How old is Cure Static?_

"So… We're just gonna stand behind this wall staring at these people until something happens…? It doesn't look like they are doing much of anything. Look, some of them are even falling asleep," Nana noted.

She was right. Several people were dozing off, some of them even looked to be fast asleep already. _Wait a second_ …

"I think they're all falling asleep. That's really suspicious. What do we do?"

Before Nana could answer, something happening inside the room grabbed their attention. A purple light briefly encompassed the entire room, and a voice echoed through the halls.

"The hero who beats all enemies! Cure Static!"

"She's here!" Nana repeatedly nudged Saiko unnecessarily, as there really was no reason to look anywhere but the room Static's voice had sounded from.

"Should we transform too?"

Nana nodded. "Even if we're not going to do anything, it's probably best if nobody catches two regular schoolgirls snooping around here."

"The hero who short-circuits all evildoers, Cure Spark!"

"The hero who dreams of the future, Cure Volt!"

Right as they finished changing, a massive explosion happened in the room. A purple blur flew right through the wall, glass dancing all around her. She collided with the wall Spark and Volt were hiding behind. Bit quickly flew out from behind it.

"Static! I brought the other Cures!"

"That's nice, but it won't be necessary." Though Volt couldn't see what was going on from their hiding spot, they could hear Static smash something against the wall repeatedly.

"Bit, should I purify this thing?"

"N-no, that's not a Glitch! Really you shouldn't be attacking it at all," they heard Bit reply. He sounded a little frightened.

"Not attack it?" Another smack. Volt surmised Static had thrown the machine she had been abusing on the floor. "It was going to turn all those people into Dociles! It's clearly evil!" They heard Static take a few steps away from the wall. Volt heard faint, confused murmuring coming from the room Static had burst out of. It sounded like people were waking up.

"It's just a machine, Static. It's not like Ellie's Glitches. It just does what it's programmed to do. You Precure are for fighting evil."

"This is evil!" Static shouted. "I should destroy this entire building. You said you sensed tons of machinery in here, I bet there's lots of them." Volt heard Static walk away.

"Wait! Are you sure this is a good idea?" Bit's voice grew fainter as he followed Static. A little bit later they heard another loud noise as Static broke another wall.

Volt looked at Spark.

"We should help those people."

Spark nodded.

"Ah, it's you girls, from the school!" one young woman exclaimed as they walked towards the room. Everyone looked either confused or a little drowsy.

"Yes. We're Cure Spark and Cure Volt, and we're here to protect you." Volt noticed Spark's eyes were sparkling.

"Was that purple girl with you?" another person asked, supporting themselves on one of the broken walls.

Spark nodded, though she looked a little hesitant.

"Sort of. Um, we don't work together, but we've got the same goals. She came here to protect you from Glitches, and she asked us to come help."

Volt saw a tall, dark man frantically looking around the room. As Spark kept answering questions about Glitches and Static, she walked over to him.

As he noticed her, he quickly walked over to her. "Precure! Man, am I relieved you came."

Volt raised her eyebrows. "You know who we are?"

The man nodded.

"Of course, I've seen the news reports about the school and the barbershop. And I remember the Ribbon Cures from way back." He rushed his words and didn't look at Volt, as if he was still searching for whatever he had lost.

"Ribbon Cures?"

The man shook his head. "It doesn't matter right now. I was wondering if you could help me find my little sister. She came here with me, but I can't find her. They must've pumped some kind of gas into the room, I fell asleep and when I woke up one of the walls was missing. I've looked but I can't find her, have people left the building already? How long was I asleep for?"

Volt felt a little taken by surprise; so many questions!

"I don't know, I'm sorry." Logical thinking told her exactly where his little sister was, but since Static was so private about her identity to the other Cures, Volt figured she wouldn't want her to go blabbing to her brother. "What does your sister look like?"

The man adjusted his glasses back onto his nose. Once again he spoke very quickly and frantically.

"She has dark skin, I mean, obviously," he quickly gestured at himself, "and she has brown eyes, also like mine, but she doesn't wear any glasses, and she has her hair tied into two buns, and she's rather short, about this tall," he moved his hand to his midriff for about a split second before he rambled on, "she's big, but she's also muscly. Wait, does that matter? Maybe it doesn't. Um, she scowls a lot, and her voice is kind of husky and it breaks often. I don't know why but it's always been like that."

Finally he closed his mouth, though he seemed to be thinking of more information he could give Volt. She quickly put her hands up in front of herself.

"That's enough! I think you've given me a very clear and… thorough description of your sister."

"Volt!" Spark called. "Let's lead these people outside."

Volt quickly walked over to her.

"There's a man here who's lost his sister. She's small and strong from what I gathered from his description, I think she might be Cure Static… What should we tell him?"

"Gogo, is that you?" Volt turned around. The man was holding a phone up to his ear. "Where did you go? I got so worried!"

Spark raised her eyebrows and looked at Volt.

"Outside? How did you get- Yes, I was asleep, but- Not so catty, young lady! You missed the Pretty Cure," he went on.

"I think he found his sister," Spark laughed. "Come on, let's go."

* * *

As they walked through the building with the group of people, they passed the damage Static had caused. Walls and windows were broken and smashed and here and there were the remains of machines she had torn apart.

"Looks like she hates robots more than you do," Spark whispered.

"I don't hate them! They just make me feel a little uncomfortable sometimes," Volt retorted.

"She doesn't hate machines, but she does hate Hera and her creations," a voice sounded from behind them.

"Bit! When did you come back?"

"Just now. Static left. I don't think what she did was a good idea…"

"Why didn't you stop her then?"

"I am just a tiny fairy, I don't have the strength of a Precure. I know I chose the best people in the city to become Precure! Cure Static has a very strong sense of justice, but she can be a little reckless."

"What is this place, anyway?" someone asked behind them.

"Don't you think it's obvious by now? I think we wouldn't have left this place the same as we came in if the Pretty Cure hadn't interfered," someone else answered.

"They all got a letter telling them they had been chosen for a special program by Hera," Spark explained to Volt, "for services to the city. The letter said they'd be given special privileges and that attendance was mandatory. They were lead to the room by a lady who told them to wait in that room we found them in."

"Hey." Volt tensed up as someone suddenly grabbed her shoulder. "When are you guys gonna get rid of Hera?"

"That's none of your concern," Spark replied as she pulled the man's hand off her shoulder. Volt quickly did the same.

"But you will, right? Why else would you come to this city?"

"Leave them alone, they clearly don't want to talk about it. Be happy they got us out of here!" Someone pulled the man away from the Cures, to Volt's relief.

"Overkill or no, I think Static had the right idea about what really happens in this place," Spark said gravely.

* * *

"A building in the commerce district of Clairewood has been completely destroyed from inside out. The building, that served as an office for civilian registration, was attacked by unknown assailants. There's reports the Pretty Cure got involved, but to what extent is unclear."

"Those Pretty Cure sure are something," Saiko's dad said as he reclined in his chair.

Saiko and her parents were watching tv together. There was one show on Sunday they'd always watch together, right after the news. It was a little corny, but Saiko enjoyed their time together, especially now she was reminded almost daily how many other kids had been separated from their parents thanks to the isolation.

"Do you like them?"

Her dad silently stared at the screen, thinking over his daughter's question.

"I don't know, Saiko. It looks like they do good, getting rid of all these crazed machines, but at the same time robots didn't go mad before they showed up."

Her mother nodded.

"I think it's too early to make a judgement on their motives and alliance. I just hope they stay away from your school from now on!"

Saiko laughed nervously.

The tiny office building popped up on the screen, and to Saiko's surprise Cure Static was standing in front of it, with next to her an interviewer.

"I'm standing here with the girl who calls herself Cure Static. She tells me she has a message to the people at home!"

Saiko tried to study Static as well as she could, but it was difficult to tell if she matched the man's description of his sister as her face was hidden by the mask and her skin was completely covered up by her outfit. She did appear to be quite husky, however, and she didn't look particularly tall. Her violet hair was long, reaching to her mid-thighs. It was tied in two ponytails. She also had two buns on each side of her head, which were vaguely heart shaped. _I wonder if her hair looks like that normally, too… Probably not bright purple though._

As soon as Static inhaled the footage was cut.

"Well, that's that, then," Saiko's father said with raised eyebrows.


	5. Chapter 5: Stubborn but Just

**(this website and how it mangles your documents, i stg.)**

 **5\. Stubborn but Just**

"Are you serious?!"

Gogo Barteau nearly shot up out of her seat as she angrily gestured at the tv. Her brother, who was sitting on the couch next to her, looked at her, slightly perplexed.

"I can't believe they cut her off like that, I really wanted to hear what she had to say!"

She relaxed a little, loosening her grip on the arms of the chair and leaning back against the backrest, her expression still thoroughly annoyed.

The tv now showed the news studio, with a slightly puzzled looking host trying to figure out what to say next. It was clear they had not anticipated the footage of that day's event to be cut short.

"Is she the one who helped you get outside?" Vilmar said as he resumed tapping away on his laptop. The Barteau household consisted of only two people since the isolation, neither of which were particularly interested in the news, but as they had actually been a part of it today they had tuned in for once. Now the item was over, Vilmar resumed his usual activity of coding, programming, and even more coding.

Gogo turned a deep red. She looked away from Vilmar, and said: "Yeah, it was her. She took me outside and then she went back in to destroy all the robots."

"Damn, she must be really fast." Vilmar didn't look up from his screen; he didn't even try to mask his insincerity.

From the moment Cure Static had appeared, he'd changed his attitude towards his little sister. It was clear he was convinced she was Cure Static, but he'd never actually asked her. It drove Gogo mad. She didn't want to tell him -as he was in fact correct!- but she also didn't feel like confronting him and fervently denying the truth. Gogo hated lying, and she hated liars. She'd been accused of having a big mouth, but she didn't care. _If you tell the truth, you're always doing the right thing._

So now she was stuck clenching her teeth whenever her brother brought up the Pretty Cure, or changing the subject as quickly as she could, or just running out of the room, as she'd done once.

"Ah, did you guys just watch the news? I thought you didn't like it."

A girl had popped up on the tv-screen. She had strawberry cream coloured hair tied into an elaborate side-ponytail. Her eyes were a bright shade of pink, and her outfit was a very gaudy vest and skirt combination in a shade of orange.

Gogo rolled her eyes, got up, and started towards the door.

"Wait! There's something I want to show you," Vilmar said. Gogo turned around with a sigh, and resumed looking at the mess of colours on the screen that violated her eyes.

"Luzia, can you do the trick we practiced?"

The girl on the screen clapped her hands together and nodded, her lips curled in a determined smile.

"Gogo, watch this!" she said, turning her head to look at Gogo. She wasn't even sure if Luzia could actually see her, as from where she was standing she could only see the edge of the tv-screen. "Don't tell me what to do," she grumbled, arms crossed.

Luzia then proceeded to stick an arm out of the screen. Gogo gasped as she started waving it around, trying to find the floor. Vilmar laughed. "Relax! She's not gonna hurt you."

A second arm followed, and then Luzia's head poked out of the screen. She smiled at Vilmar, and then tumbled out of the television.

"Ta da!" She posed with her arms outstretched, then made a majestic twirl and posed for Gogo.

"Why," was all she managed to get out after a few seconds of silent staring.

"Gogo, look!" Luzia excitedly ran over to the couch and made a show of sitting down on it. She was always horribly oblivious to Gogo's dislike of her, to the point where Gogo wondered if Vilmar had programmed her to not notice it.

"I can sit down! And I can touch things!" She spun around and put her hands on the wall, then on the lamp, and then right through Vilmar. She pulled her hands back in surprise, then giggled.

"Oh, I guess it doesn't work on people yet."

Vilmar smiled and shook his head.

"I mapped the house so she can walk around and not go through solid objects, but I haven't figured out how to make her interact with living objects.

Gogo raised an eyebrow. "They're called people, Mar. Or animals. Not objects." She turned around and walked out of the living room, through the hall, into her own room.

"You better not have mapped my room!" she shouted into the hall.

Luzia was a virtual idol Vilmar had programmed for the company he worked at before the isolation. She had been given a voice to sing with provided by a human singer and had been taught how to walk and dance on her own via a complex program Vilmar had written. Until just now, Luzia had not existed outside of a computer. Gogo had no idea how her brother had managed to get her out of the screen but right now she didn't particularly care, she just didn't want Luzia around her.

She was used for some ad campaigns and even gave concerts, which used big transparent screens her program was run on. Luzia was not self aware; everything she said and did was carefully calculated by her programming, so every emotion she expressed was only expressed because her coding declared it as the 'right thing to do'. The most advanced technology in Luzia was that she could 'see': She could process information in front of her and copy it. This was very useful if they wanted to teach her new dances or new songs. They could also just upload them on her database, but her learning them via humans made her movements more natural. Since Vilmar was the one who programmed her, he often ran tests with her at the Barteau residence. At first they had been purely business, but overtime Vilmar had started treating Luzia as a member of the family, to Gogo's dismay. She's not a person, this is stupid.

Gogo sat down at her desk and activated her tablet, then turned on her computer. Due to today's events and general procrastination she had ended up with a huge delay in her homework. When she checked the list of things she had to do, she sighed. _I'm not gonna be able to go to bed before 2 am._ She wondered if she'd have more free time if she didn't fight Glitches by herself as Volt and Spark did seem to purify them faster than she could. She wasn't sure if she wanted to reveal her identity to anyone though, even the other Cures. She already deducted Volt and Spark were in the same school as her, as she had been inside when it got attacked and Bit had left her in a hurry when it happened.

What if they were upperclassmen? What if they'd try to boss her around? She grimaced at that thought and tapped open a book on her tablet. _For now I should fight by myself, and observe the others._ Then I can decide what to do, she reasoned as she started her assignments.

* * *

The next morning she ate a bowl of cereal while Vilmar worked on his laptop and Luzia demonstrated a new dance for Gogo.

"Why do you do this?" She said when Luzia asked her what she thought of her performance.

"Because I want to know if you like it!" she replied cheerfully.

"I thought it was really dumb." Gogo took another bite of her cereal, not looking up to see Luzia's reaction. She did not reply; the smile didn't even fade from her lips. Instead she practiced her new dance some more.

"Why does she never respond when I say something mean to her," Gogo said as she got up to put away her bowl.

"I've made it so she doesn't register any negative feedback from you. It started putting a real damper on her spirits and she can't differentiate between proper feedback and actual insults."

"You should program that in, then."

"You're the only one who insults her like that. Maybe you're the one that should stop."

Gogo sighed loudly. "As if it matters. She's a program, she doesn't feel anything. See you tonight!"

* * *

Her day at school went as usual. Hera's announcement, classes, break, more classes, and time to go home again. During break she noticed something round had hidden itself in her bag.

"Oh, hello Bit. How have you been?"

"I've been alright. I came to talk to you about what you did, yesterday!"

"Oh." Gogo looked at the table in front of her as she carefully chewed her sandwich, not looking at the bag as she replied. "Maybe you could tell me when it's not lunch break, so I don't look like I'm talking to my bag."

Bit was silent for a moment. "Well, I think this is more important than whether you look silly or not. I wanted to know what you said yesterday that made Hera cut the feed."

"I said I was going to beat up whoever was doing this to people. I wasn't even specific that I was talking about Hera or her stealing people's free will. I didn't think she'd actually cut it, I tried to be discreet."

"I think you'll need to be extra careful, you're not ready to deal with such a strong opponent, definitely not by yourself! The other Cures haven't destroyed anything of Hera's, so she might be watching you now."

"Fine, I'll just focus on Glitches as long as she's not threatening anyone close to me. We're gonna take the fight to her eventually though, right?" She looked at the opening in her bag through which she could see one of Bit's glowing eyes.

"Probably. I'm sorry Gogo, I don't remember enough to know what we should do on the long run…"

"That's okay, it's not your fault she took your memory."

* * *

As she left the building after school, she passed two girls having a discussion. As the afternoon sun passed over them, Gogo noticed one of them reflected light. Startled, she turned around. The regular girl was one of her classmates, the other girl appeared to be a robot wearing the school uniform, though she was wearing three different coloured ribbons around her neck. Oh gods, it's her again.

"I was wondering if your classes were easier than the ones of the students who wear red and gold ribbons. You all look kind of samey to me in your uniforms but I noticed you wear different ribbons, so I thought maybe they had some significance!"

It took the girl a second to reply, she looked very startled. "Y-yes, I'm a third year. The red ribbon is for fourth years," she stammered.

It took Gogo a lot of restraint not to transform and beat the robot to a pulp on the spot. Bit, who was still hidden in her bag, seemed to sense her anger.

"What's wrong, Gogo? Why did you stop?" She slid her backpack off one arm and turned sideways a little, so Bit had a clear view of the two girls.

"Oh no, she's here again?"

"Can I just rip her apart right now?" Gogo whispered, staring at Robot Girl's back.

"What? No! She's not doing anything! Pretty Cure are warriors of good, not senseless violence!"

"It's not senseless! Her mother tried to turn my brother into a brainless tool. He didn't even do anything wrong," Gogo hissed, not taking her eyes off the silver girl, who had pulled out a children's book and handed it to her classmate.

"I never said she was Hera's daughter," Bit retorted.

Gogo rolled her eyes. "Oh yeah sure, this city is full of robot mothers who dote on their lovely little robot children. Who else could it be?! She's probably just Hera's conscience loaded into a teenage body so she can infiltrate kids better or something."

"People are stopping to stare at you, you're hissing really loudly," Bit said so quietly she could barely hear him.

Gogo was about to shout at everyone around her to stop staring, when the silver girl suddenly stomped her foot down.  
"What do you mean, first grade reading? Are you trying to insult me?!" Gogo's classmate took a step back.

"N-No! I just answered your question, that book is below the material you have to read in my class-"

"You are calling me stupid!"

Before Gogo could make a move to interject, the silver girl grabbed her classmate's phone from her hand and touched it with a glowing blue finger. She dropped it and took a few steps back. Before the phone could hit the floor, it caught itself on four wires that had sprouted from its sides.  
Gogo sprinted for the school doors, against the flocks of students leaving the building, as she saw the shadow of the Glitch starting to tower over the onlooking students.

She transformed in a bathroom and started running up the stairs, Bit in pursuit.

"Where are you going?"

"I can't just run out the front door, people might've noticed it was me going in here," she said.

When she got to the stairwell she shot into the air so fast she almost collided with the ceiling when she reached the top floor.

She opened the door to the roof with such fervor that it came off the wall.

"I think it might be smart to train so you can get your strength under control,"

"Yeah, well, maybe later," Static said as she ran across the roof and inspected the ground below.

When she checked where she would land, she jumped off the roof. Adrenaline woke the butterflies in her belly and she felt her face grow hot. She could feel her heartbeat in her throat: _Being a Pretty Cure was so exciting_.

"The hero who knocks down all enemies! Cure Static," she yelled right before she landed right on top of the Glitch, its screen cracking loudly under her feet. Small shards of glass sprang up and made little marks on her legs, but Static was too pumped to notice.

"Do you think Tim likes me?" The Glitch said.

"It's reading my texts aloud, please make it stop!" Static saw her classmate shout from below, her face scarlet and her eyes watery.

"Time to turn you into a flip phone," Static said as she grabbed the top of the Glitch, which leaned back thanks to the sudden weight imbalance. Static quickly jumped off as it tipped over and crashed down; she quickly grabbed three students that were in danger of getting crushed and unceremoniously threw them out of the area of danger.

"Please step back, everyone," she shouted. She noticed here and there people were filming, just like they had at the barbershop the week before. Her heart seemed to start beating even faster.

"I hate mr. Harrods classes, he's so boring LOL," the Glitch said as it tried to lift itself up. This proved difficult due to its body being one solid piece of glass and plastic.

"Cure Static, please hurry!" Her classmate pleaded.

Static looked around for Bit and saw he was inspecting the Glitch.

"Do you think it's ready to be purified?"

Bit shook his head.  
Static breathed out sharply, as if she was getting ready for a very arduous task, and took a few steps back. "Time for that flip phone downgrade I promised you," she said to the Glitch as she ran up to it. The Glitch, which was now in a vertical position as it still tried to get itself back on its feet, smashed into the steel fence that surrounded the school as it took the full impact of Static's kick.

"WTF," it said. The impact caused it to be horribly dented, and the top part of the screen now bent forward.

"Almost there," Static said. She climbed on top of the Glitch, which feebly tried to grab one of her legs and failed, and started stomping on it. She didn't stop until it was was completely bent, like a sandwich made out of plastic, glass and bits of wire.

"There, that'll do it!" Static stood back a little to admire her work.

"You scare me a little sometimes," Bit said. "You can purify it now. You could've done the moment after you smashed it into the fence, actually…"

Static grinned. "Oops, guess I got a little carried away."

"Precure… Override!"

Bit collected the chip from the remains of the Glitch and Static handed the phone, which was in pristine condition, back to her classmate, who was in tears.

"Thank you," she sniveled.

"Don't worry about it. If anyone picks on you for what that Glitch said, just tell them Cure Static will beat them up," she said with a wink.

When she asked the onlookers where the silver girl had gone and they told her she'd left the moment after she created the Glitch, Static's mood immediately soured.

* * *

"Why does she do this? I mean, what's the point?" Gogo was walking home, Bit hidden away in her backpack once again.

"I don't know. She seems to be very childish," he replied.  
"If I could just destroy her, all this nonsense would stop. No silver girl, no Glitches."

"If she really is Hera's daughter like you said, that'd probably make Hera mad."

Gogo threw her head back and let out a cry of frustration. "Argh, I hate not being able to do anything!"

"You're doing plenty of things! You just need to have a little more patience."

She groaned. Then, when a Docile passed her, she almost cricked her neck with how fast she turned her head.

"Whoa, why did you swing your bag like that, whats wrong?"

"That person was in that building yesterday, with my brother."

* * *

"Vilmar?"

Gogo stormed into the apartment, frantically looking around. "Vilmar, are you home?"  
Just before she was about to seriously panic, Vilmar appeared in the door to the living room.

"Gogo, what's wrong? Did something happen at school?"  
"No- I mean, yes, but that's not important right now. I saw one of those people from yesterday, he had blue eyes and a thing in his head, and… and-"

"Hey, relax, Genie." Vilmar caressed his little sister's shoulder, trying to calm her down a little. "Have a seat."

After he led Gogo to a chair, he sat down across from her.  
"What if they're gonna come for you again?" she said, unable to cover the worry on her face.

"They won't."

"You don't know that!" That came out louder than she'd meant, but she'd been shocked and scared by what she had seen and she simply couldn't understand why Vilmar didn't see the severity of the situation.

"I do know, actually. They did come by."

 _What._

Gogo was so astounded, she didn't know how to reply.

"They said I either had to attend the program again or I could give some of my work to Hera.

They took Luzia."


	6. Chapter 6: The Invitation

(dont you just hate how the title ends up on a line above the story when you don't put anything here? Anyway as you might've noticed the paragraphing in this is a little different from the previous chapters, and I'd like to know what's preferred: More paragraphs like the previous chapters or more clustered bits of story like this?)

 **6\. The invitation**

"Shouldn't we have helped her?"  
"Judging from the state of that Glitch at the end of that battle I think she was just fine on her own."

Nana and Saiko were sat next to each other on the bus to school. They talked in low voices, though they were pretty sure nobody was listening in regardless as everyone was too busy chatting about the videos that were taken of Static's battle with the Glitch in the schoolyard just the day before.

"I wonder what Bit learned from this chip," Saiko mused, a hand on her chin.  
"I hope it's something more useful this time, but I'm not particularly confident in that," Nana sighed.  
"Remember Static's fight at the barbershop? Did Bit ever tell us what he learned from the chip he got from that fight? Or did he not get one...?"

Nana frowned and crossed her arms. "Actually, I don't know what he learned, if he learned anything at all… I don't think he told us."  
Saiko sighed.  
"I think everything would be a lot easier if all four of us worked together, at least Bit could maybe stay with one person instead of switching between people all the time." She stared out the window for a bit, then continued: "Don't you think it's kind of silly if we just keep fighting Ellie's monsters without any real reason behind it?"

Nana shook her head.  
"We gotta protect people from them, even if they're just sent by a teenage robot that's prone to throwing tantrums."

Saiko continued staring out the window, seemingly deep in thought. "With everything Bit has told us, it seems there's gonna be something big at the end of this. He said Pretty Cure fight injustice, didn't he?"  
Nana nodded. "Personally, I think it's pretty obvious what that 'big' thing is."

* * *

They left the bus, which was an ordeal every day as everyone tried to exit the bus as quickly as possible and kids were pushing each other and elbowing people out of the way.  
"Boys! You'd think they never evolved from the primate stage," Nana grumbled as she straightened her jacket.  
"You could just elbow them back," Saiko suggested quietly. Nana smirked at her.  
"Would you?"  
"N-no, but you're a lot braver than I am." Saiko turned a little pink.

They gathered together with the other students in front of the giant screen on the school's main building. After a few minutes, as the clock sounded nine, a picture appeared on the screen.

This time it was a black and white photo of a pretty lady with a friendly smile on her face. Her black hair was curled and shiny, she had perfect eyebrows and neatly painted nails. In her hands she held a plate of cookies.

Hera used a different picture to represent herself every day, Nana thought she did this to appeal to as many people as possible. The person on the picture would change race, hair, dress, and whatever she was doing, but one thing was consistent: She always looked like a young mother from the fifties of the previous century. Why is she using something so old fashioned?

As Hera was addressing the students in her usual manner Nana bent closer to Saiko.  
"Those cookies she's holding, do you think they're chocolate chip or raisin?"  
Saiko stifled a laugh.  
"Nana! Please focus on the announcements," she whispered, a smile on her lips.  
Nana rolled her eyes, though she still had a grin on her face.  
"It's the same stuff every day, anyway."

"Oh," Hera suddenly began, "and I have a special message for you all this day. As you undoubtedly know, we have a force of heroes in our midst since last week."  
Saiko gasped audibly. To Nana's relief she wasn't the only one who reacted, as a murmur started up in the crowd. She clutched her phone in her pocket. Where was Bit?

"As they have so valiantly protected you all from several mishaps, I would like to invite them over. However, as they have not revealed to us where they live, I am broadcasting this message to all citizens of Clairewood, in hopes that it will reach them."

Nana's phone buzzed, and from Saiko's yelp and some people instinctively grabbing at their pockets, she gathered hers wasn't the only one. She put a hand on Saiko's shoulder.  
"Please calm down a little."  
"I can't! You know how nervous I get," she squeaked in reply.

"I have just sent you all coordinates to where you can find me. Don't forget, these are just for the Pretty Cure, not regular citizens! Anyone who shows up uninvited will be denied entry. I expect to meet you Cures at 6 pm tonight. I will grant you leave from work if necessary, as I'm sure any employer understands."  
After that Hera continued with her regular messages and her standard "I love you and have a great day, dears".

Saiko and Nana walked through the halls to their class in dead silence after the announcement. They did not feel comfortable discussing Hera's invitation now the whole school was talking about it. Not until that evening, when they were in Saiko's room.

"I think we should go," Saiko said. She sat on the edge of her bed, clutching one of her many plush animals.  
Nana was leaning against the desk, and thought for a moment.  
"I don't know. What if she's just trying to get us in one place so she can get rid of us all at once?"

"She said we protected people. She called us heroes."

Before Nana could reply, she was distracted by a tapping on the window.  
"Bit!" She quickly opened the window to let the little robot fairy inside. "Where have you been?"  
"I was with Static. I just checked on the other Cure, too." He hovered over to the bed and landed on one of the pillows.  
"Are they gonna go tonight?" Nana asked.  
"Yes. Both of them will be there. I advise you two to go, as well."  
"So they trust Hera?" Saiko shifted a little on the bed, holding the plushie quite tightly.  
"I wouldn't say that," Bit replied, "but I got new information from the chip I collected from the Glitch Static beat yesterday that convinced them to go."  
"Of course!" Nana slapped her forehead. "I totally forgot about that chip. What did you learn?"

Bit cleared his non-existent throat. With closed eyes he said, as if reading from a sheet of paper: "Hera was built to protect the city. She was not made with any evil intentions."  
There was a short silence as Nana and Saiko waited for more, but none came.

"That's it? Did you learn anything from when Static fought that Glitch at the barbershop?"  
"Ah yes of course! I didn't tell you, did I?" Bit cleared his hypothetical throat once again. "Elleanor is named that way because she is number 'E'".  
"Number E? Don't you mean letter?"  
Bit shook his head. "My memory says it's the number E."  
Nana let out a sigh. "I wish your memories were less cryptic. The thing about Hera was interesting, though…"

Saiko checked her phone for the time. "We should probably get going if we want to meet Hera. What shall we do?" She put away the stuffed animal, as if she was getting ready.

"I guess that information is the most useful we've gotten out of those chips so far, though it's still not a lot… Well, if the other two Cures are going, I think we should go too. If anything, it'll give us a chance to properly meet them."

* * *

Bit stayed behind in Saiko's room, stashed between her stuffed animals.

The girls transformed before leaving the neighbourhood, hidden away from view in one of the many narrow alleys. They decided it was a bad idea to go to Hera's meetingpoint as their normal selves, as they weren't convinced Hera hadn't laid out a trap for them there. Under no circumstances was the motherly AI to know who they were in normal everyday life.

They arrived at a big, glass building. On the side of it was a giant tower, and behind that they could see giant stretches of concrete. On the tower they could see small lights flickering on and off every now and then, though inside it was completely dark, as was the main building.

"She wanted us to come to the airport?" Spark asked as they kept walking towards the entrance. Here and there she could see planes, standing abandoned behind the airport fences.  
"It makes sense, doesn't it? The building's been empty ever since the isolation, since we can't leave the barrier and nobody can get in either."

When they arrived at the door, they noticed one of the windows next to it had been smashed. Inside, Spark could see the silhouette of someone sitting on a nearby row of benches. The doors slid open, and the two Cures entered the building.

"Hey, it didn't do that when I came here!" The silhoutte got up and started towards the girls. "I had to punch a hole in the wall to get inside. I hope she doesn't expect me to pay for it." In the faint light coming from the streetlights outside on the parking lot Spark could make out a short figure. On her chest was a cat's face with brightly lit up violet, smiling eyes. Cure Static.

"Oh it's you two! Thanks for helping me out in the business district the other day." She held out her hand. Spark noticed the gauntlet was on her left arm, whereas Volt and she herself both had the gauntlet on their right arm. She took Static's hand and shook it.

Static had a very firm handshake, so firm even that she nearly crushed Spark's fingers. "I'm Cure Spark," she said in a strained voice, "this is Cure Volt." When Static shook Volt's hand, she yelled out in pain.  
"Ow! I thought we were gonna be friends, why did you do that?!" Volt was waving her sore hand in front of her, as if to shake off the pain, her eyes watery.  
"Oh, I'm sorry! I don't know my own strength. I'm part of the weightlifting club and the boxing club at my school, so even when I'm not a Pretty Cure I tend to be a little rough, heh."

As the three of them discussed their experiences as Precure, the door slid open once again.

The sound of high heels clacking on the shiny stone floors echoed through the big entrance hall. Spark turned to look, and saw a second masked figure. Though she couldn't quite make out the specific colour, this Cure wore an outfit in a lighter shade than the other three Cures. She wore long boots, had matching gloves, and in the middle of her chest was a cat face with sleepy yellow eyes. Her stride made her look like a supermodel, with long golden hair tied into a ponytail. The other three Cures gaped at her as she stopped in front of them.

"My name is Cure Circuit, it's nice to meet you." She curtsied.  
"Don't shake her hand, you might break it off," Volt whispered to Static, who was too busy staring at Circuit to retort.  
"Uh, hello." Spark tried to curtsy, though it looked a little awkward as she wasn't really sure how to do it properly. "My name is Cure Spark, and that's my friend Cure Volt. We've been working together since we became Cures. And that's Cure Static."

Circuit was a head taller than she was, and the mask hiding her face made her look extra intimidating.  
"I hope you don't mind if I keep my identity hidden from you. I think it's not the right time to reveal to anyone who I am, and I can't work together with you either, I'm afraid."  
Static put her hands on her hips. Spark couldn't see her face but had a feeling she was glaring at Circuit. "Wow, sounds like you think you're super important."

Volt clapped a hand in front of her mouth.

"Now now, let's not start off on the wrong foot at our first meeting," Spark said, trying to defuse the situation.  
"It's okay, I understand that may be upsetting to you. I'll explain later. But right now, I just really do not have the time to work together with you," Circuit said, sounding calm and composed.  
"Apparently you don't have time to do anything, because I haven't heard of you at all! Did you even defeat any Glitches?" Static said, raising her voice.  
"I was preoccupied. It was related to protecting Clairewood, I promise you. Besides, Glitches mainly appeared around the school, which is not a place I spend any time at."

Static was ready to reply when suddenly all the lights in the building came on. All the travel posters and memorabilia were lit up, making the hall look a lot more colourful. The picture of a fifties housewife popped up on one of the larger screens in the hall that normally used to list the arrivals and departures of different flights.

"Welcome, girls! I'm so glad to see you could all make it."

"Thank you for having us," Circuit said, curtsying once again. Spark chose not to try that again, debating whether she should greet Hera at all since she was talking to them through a screen. _You wouldn't wave at a television, would you?_

The four girls gathered in front of the screen, the atmosphere around them felt tense. Not knowing what the other two Cures were up to, let alone Hera, was a very uncomfortable feeling.

"I am sure you are wondering why I called you here tonight," the lady on the screen began, "and I would just like to thank you for your efforts in protecting the civilians. It is a calming thought for me, as a concerned mother and caretaker, to know that there's four upstanding heroes looking out for my children and who care about their safety almost as much as I do."

Static was gritting her teeth so hard, Spark could practically hear it. The small purple Cure stood next to her with her fists clenched, an aura of anger and defiance surrounding her. "Its interesting," she managed in a not entirely convincing calm tone, "that you call the citizens 'your children'."

"Why, whatever do you mean by that?" Hera asked, sounding surprised.  
"You're not huma-"  
"You have a daughter, don't you? Uh, Elleanor, we've seen her around the city!" Volt quickly interjected before Static could finish her sentence. She threw a meaningful look at the small girl, but Static didn't visibly react to it.

 _It's really hard to communicate non-verbally when half the people in the room are wearing masks_ , Spark thought.

"Those are both correct statements," Hera responded. She sounded serious, but kind nonetheless. "I am not human. This is not something I am ashamed of, and I want you to speak to me freely, so please don't censor each other." Volt turned red and looked at the floor.  
"As for Elleanor, she is indeed my daughter. I would like to apologize to you for how she's been behaving the past few days. I have grounded her for putting so many people in danger. Please understand, she's a teenager and she gets easily upset when she doesn't get her way."

"Oh, so she's not here, then?" Static asked.

"She is not. I have told her to apologise to you, but she refused, which is why I've grounded her for two weeks. Initially it was just going to be one, but you know how kids get." Hera laughed.

Spark frowned. "A week's detention for destroying parts of the city and endangering people?"

"Like me, Elleanor is a robot. She doesn't know how dire the consequences of her actions can be! She has a strong, steel body which could withstand anything that would most likely kill a human, she's not really aware how much harm she can cause when she gets upset. But she just really loves human culture, and who am I to not let my daughter enrich herself by immersing herself in it?"

"It's a miracle nobody has died with the things she's created," Static said.

"I know. It's very regrettable. Which is why I am so very happy that you Pretty Cure are now here to protect the city. If there is anything, anything I can do to help, please do tell me."

The Cures looked at each other for a moment.  
Spark wasn't really sure what to say while Static next to her was now shaking with anger.

"I hope you don't mind me asking," Circuit spoke up after a brief silence, "but I was wondering when you were going to take down the barrier."  
Hera laughed heartily.  
"Was it you who has been attacking the barrier, girl?"  
"Y-yes. I apologize. I know your intentions are good, but people have been cut off from their loved ones and I've heard whispers of citizens who'd rather see it gone. I should've discussed it with you first, I am aware." Circuit sounded really mature to Spark, she wondered how old the Cure dressed in soft yellow was.

"I appreciate your apology. I am afraid I can't do that, I'm sorry. I understand people are upset they can't communicate with those outside of the barrier, but it's all for everyone's safety, I assure you! I am also working on a way to make it possible for all of you to communicate with those outside of Clairewood."

"Yeah, I heard that before," Static whispered.

"It is taking longer than I intended, I admit. There are some… Complications. I'll make sure you're among the first to know once I've succeeded."

Spark gathered all her courage together, looked up at the screen and asked: "Isn't anyone trying to break into the city, from outside? Did you inform them, before you put the barrier up?"

To their surprise (and slight horror, in Spark's case) it took Hera a while to answer.  
"I did not. It can be very hard to convince people of what is the right thing. There have been no attempts to break in. When it happens, you will be the first to hear, I promise. I do hope the outside world knows better than to damage the barrier, as it is purely there for protection.  
Oh my, would you look at the time! I have bothered you for long enough. I'd like to thank you once more for looking out for Clairewood, and I am certain we will meet again. I love you, and have a good night's rest."

Just like that, the screen turned off. The girls stared at it in silence for a second before Circuit spoke up.

"It was nice to meet you all, and we'll be in contact through Bit. I have to leave now, I'm really sorry." She turned around and started walking away, as Static grumbled something inaudible.

Right as she was about to leave the building, Volt suddenly shouted: "Take care!"  
Circuit stopped and turned around, studying the green Cure for a moment.  
"Take care," she replied, and then she walked out of the building.

"What was that about?" Spark said, looking at her friend.  
"I think I know who that is," Volt whispered, her cheeks bright red.  
"You do?" Spark replied, sounding very curious. She honestly had no idea who either of the other two Cures could be. Volt nodded.  
"I can't tell you here, what if Hera is still listening?" she whispered. Spark nodded.  
"You're right, we should talk somewhere else."

When she went to say goodbye to Static, the small purple Cure spoke up.  
"I was wondering if maybe we could join forces," she began, fiddling with her gauntlet, "I think we'd be a lot stronger if we worked together."  
The other two Cures looked at each other for a moment. Then Spark smiled. "Of course! That would be great!"  
"Cool!" Static replied. "Uh, should we go somewhere else now, to discuss what we learned? Also, it's really weird to talk to people whose faces you can't see…"  
"If I knew how to make the mask disappear, I would," Spark said as they made their way outside.

* * *

They de-transformed when they were sure nobody could see them. As it was now seven pm, they still had about an hour left to be outside. They decided to spend it in an empty children's park. Nana gasped when she saw who Static was, as did Static when she saw Nana.

"You're Genevieve from independence class!"  
"You're that stubborn girl who's dad's in Hera's custody!"  
"He's not being turned into a docile!"  
"How do you know? And how can you believe that after everything we've seen?!"

Saiko coughed.  
"Can we please not immediately start fighting right after we decided to form a team," she said, sounding slightly annoyed. The other two girls apologised.

"My name's Saiko Himura, I've been friends with Nana since we were kids. It's nice to meet you."  
"I'm Genevieve Barteau, but I usually go by Gogo."  
"Gogo? That's an interesting nickname." Gogo smiled, though her eyes were sad.  
"Mémère calls me Genie, but she's outside of Clairewood. I got the nickname Gogo from my brother because I've got a lot of energy and I'm pretty tough. Genie is too gentle."  
She scratched at a loose splinter in the picnic table they were sitting at.

"You are really strong, we saw videos of your work as Cure Static," Nana said, trying to cheer Gogo up.  
"Oh, that." Gogo chuckled and scratched her head, looking slightly embarrassed.  
"I tend to go a little overboard with damaging Glitches because it takes a while before I can purify them. Part of why I wanted to join you guys is because I think we'll be able to purify them faster if it's the three of us instead of me alone."

"I bet Bit will be really thrilled we're working together. He did say we were supposed to work as a team," Saiko said.  
"I'm not sure if I want to work with that Cure Circuit," Gogo replied, "she seemed to be really full of herself. I bet she'd boss us around, too!"

Saiko sat up.  
"I think I know who she is," she repeated, "in fact, I'm almost certain." She grabbed her phone and started scrolling through apps.  
"Oh yeah, you did say that. So who is it?"  
Saiko tapped several times on her phone, then she put it down on the table.

" _I love practicing for new songs, I think I get them down slightly faster than Mimi and Raina, but with my background that's only logical. I hope I'll see you all at the next concert! Take care!"_

 _Take care._  
Nana looked at Saiko with knitted brows. If possible, Gogo looked even more confused.  
"You think it's one of those idols?"  
"Her name is Rae, and it has to be her! She's the same height, and she totally flinched when I called out to her inside the airport!"

Gogo shrugged. "The voice you just played doesn't really sound like Circuit's."  
"Don't Nana and I sound different, now we're not in disguise?" Saiko asked.  
Gogo raised her eyebrows, and then slowly nodded. "You were all masked when we were in there, I didn't know our voices are warped when we're transformed."

Nana put her elbows on the table. "To be fair, her having the same height as Circuit and saying 'take care' isn't a lot to go on, Saiko."

Saiko vehemently shook her head.

"You don't understand! Being masked might distort our voices, but it doesn't remove any distinct patterns in it. Like you, Gogo, you've got a really husky voice. It sounds higher pitched and more robotic when you're Cure Static, but you can still hear it break occasionally. Rae and Circuit have the same accent. She isn't from Clairewood; Sorella just happened to be here when the barrier was put up. She isn't a native speaker, and I doubt there's a lot of people from her country inside of the city. It has to be her!"

"Well, if it really is her, that makes chances of her joining us really small. Won't she be busy being an idol most of the time?" Gogo said.

Saiko's face fell.  
"I… Guess you're right," she said quietly.

Nana got up and slammed her hands down on the table. "Let's not focus on whether some idol wants to be our friend or not, we've finally got a team together! And I for one am really happy about it." She had a giant grin on her face which made it very hard not to smile back. Even Saiko cracked a small smile.

"I'm really looking forward to being Pretty Cures together. I'd almost ask Ellie to create a new Glitch for us to fight!" They laughed.


	7. Chapter 7: The Cat and The Robot

_[Sorry its a bit late! Thanku to Rikki for beta-ing 3]_

 **7\. The Cat and The Robot**

Fridays were short days of school for Nana and Saiko; they only had four hours of class, so they could go home before lunch if they wanted. Today, however, they decided to stay for lunch so they could talk with their new teammate some more.

"You get to leave now? That's so unfair! I wish I was in the next year already." Gogo pouted as the two fourth-years approached her table. She was surrounded by a fairly large group of burly looking boys and girls. Nana recognised a few of them from her own class; these were all members of the boxing club.

Gogo waved goodbye to her friends as she walked with Nana and Saiko to a more deserted table in the corner of the cafeteria.

"You wanted to talk to us?" Nana asked. Gogo nodded as she straightened the blue ribbon on her collar and laced her fingers together on top of the table. Nana and Saiko subconsciously sat up straighter, looking to all the world as if the group was conducting a very important business interview in the middle of a busy high school lunchroom.

"I was wondering if you had a strategy, or any plans I should know about, now that we'll be working together."

For the past few days, the trio had little time together. Not only were they in different years, but there was little time to talk in between classes. Gogo's club duties after school further prevented any worthwhile communication. Ellie had, once again, kept quiet for a few days after her last attack, so there had been no proper Precure meetups either. While they did keep in touch on the phone, Cure Circuit never responded, much to Saiko's regret.

"We don't, actually," Nana answered. "If a Glitch shows up somewhere, we go there and purify it, but that's really all there is to it."

"It's only been a few weeks," Saiko added with a shrug.

Gogo relaxed her hands in front of her. "I suppose that's true, but it still might be a good idea to think of something soon."

"Well, as long as we protect people from Ellie's Glitches, we should be good, right?" Nana said. Saiko agreed. Bit had never spoken of any strategies, and he was the one who made them into Pretty Cures, so they should be fine.

Gogo shook her head.

"I know Bit says we're not fighting Hera, but eventually we'll have to, evil or not." She looked around to check if anyone is listening in. "Clairewood is cut off from the outside world, so that means no trade is happening. I know we have a pretty good amount of fields and farms on the outskirts, but eventually we're gonna run out of food."

Saiko looked at Nana, slightly startled. She hadn't thought of this at all.

"Maybe she'll lift the barrier once that happens? She's always talking about our well-being, and that she has the best intentions for us..."

Once again, Gogo shook her head.

"My brother's job is programming AI; I know how they function. Hera's programmed to protect everyone, Bit mentioned that. There's nothing about keeping us alive. And what's easier to keep safe than a bunch of starved corpses?"

Saiko clapped a hand in front of her mouth, while Nana looked defiant.

"You can't really think she'd do that! She's got to feel sorry for us, right? I mean," Saiko lowered her voice, "I know she does bad things, but Bit said she means well, she wasn't made with any ill intent."

"You don't understand," Gogo replied. "Clairewood might be really advanced when it comes to technology, but you can't program morality into a machine. You can give them rules to abide by, but they won't understand why they do and if it clashes with their main orders they might end up going rogue. Orders matter to them most of all, there's a reason why hospitals don't use AI for anything related to keeping people alive."

Nana leaned back a little, her eyes screwed up, like she was thinking very deeply.

"Why are we so certain Hera's acting on her own? Bit said she was made by someone. Who's to say that person isn't behind all this?"

"Why would a person put Clairewood on lockdown?" Saiko asked. This all sounded very confusing to her, and all the talk about how robots lacked a moral code didn't really help quench her fear of them.

Nana sighed and slumped in her chair. "I don't know. I guess there's really no reason to do something like that. I'm just not particularly fond of this theory that Hera's gonna let us starve to death."

"Which is why we should take the fight to her!" Gogo said, slamming her fist on the table.

Several students looked up.

"What?" Gogo shouted, an annoyed expression on her face. The students turned back, some of them looking a little bewildered. She folded her arms and turned back, though her head was down, eyes locked on the table.

"We don't know where she's run off to, which is an issue." She lifted her eyes up to look at the two fourth years, still keeping her head down, face skewed with a dark expression. Saiko had a feeling she wasn't going like what Gogo had to say.

"If we destroy Elleanor instead of just purifying the next Glitch she creates, it might bring Hera to us."

Nana opened her mouth to answer just as the bell rang, stopping her words in her throat. Gogo quickly got up and grabbed her bag. "I've got a test this next class, I gotta go now, I'm sorry."

As she walked away Nana called after her: "I don't agree with that plan-" but she trailed off as Gogo turned the corner. "I don't think destroying a robot who behaves like a pouty teenager is a very righteous thing to do," she sighed.

* * *

Every wednesday afternoon Saiko helped her parents in the animal shelter, cleaning the cages and feeding the animals. She also showed people around who came in to look at the animals or who came to adopt. This was a little scary to Saiko as she wasn't particularly fond of interacting with strangers -it's just so hard to say the right things when you don't know someone- but she would usually be fine after a few minutes. Seeing people's faces light up when they talked about the animals helped calm her nerves a bit.

Today, two people were scheduled to come by to pick up and sign the papers for two dogs, though they wouldn't come by until later that afternoon. This was nice, Saiko found, as it gave her some time to mentally prepare for their visits. As she was looking over the details of the dogs on the computer at the visitor's desk, the door suddenly opened. She looked up, and saw a girl dressed in a Clairewood High uniform standing there. That's strange, shouldn't she still be-  
"Elleanor!"  
Saiko instinctively grabbed the computer as it was the only visible piece of electronics in the room, as if to shield it from Ellie.  
Ellie walked over to the desk, looking around curiously.  
"Hello. Oh, you're one of my classmates!" She smiled.  
"Ah, y-yes," Saiko stammered.  
"I haven't been to school in a while, I hope the teachers aren't mad," Ellie continued. "It's just that something bad happens to be whenever I go."  
Saiko just nodded, afraid of saying anything that would set Ellie off.  
"You have cats, right?" Ellie looked at Saiko expectantly.  
"Y-yes, we do. Would you like to see them?" _Ack, why did I say that? I want her to leave!_

Saiko immediately regretted that thought when she saw Ellie's eyes light up. Saiko hadn't ever seen her so excited before, she didn't even know Ellie was capable of it.  
"Yes! Please, I'd love to see them!"  
Saiko got up from behind the desk and waved Ellie to follow her.

"We have several places where we keep cats, would you like to see the kittens or grown ups?"  
Ellie stared at her with a blank expression on her face. "What's the difference?"  
Saiko's stomach turned. Every time she had seen Ellie flip out, it had been related to her thinking someone was mocking her for not knowing something.  
"Kittens are babies, while grown ups are adult cats," Saiko said as she tried to hide her trembling hands behind her back.  
"Oh," Ellie said, "I know grown ups are adults, I'm not stupid!"  
Saiko grabbed at her phone, thinking she had angered Ellie, but the other girl had a big smile on her face.  
"So kittens are babies? Can I see them?"  
Saiko nodded, relieved. "Just follow me."

She went through a door and held it open for Ellie. A chorus of small mews greeted them.  
"Wow, they're really noisy," Ellie noted.  
"They do that when they're still small," Saiko said. She knelt down next to a glass window that looked into a room full of boxes, scratching posts, bells, balls and other toys designed for cats. Ellie sat down next to her and looked into the room.  
"They're so cute! They're a lot smaller than the ones in my book," Ellie's eyes darted around the room, trying to take in as many kittens as she could.  
"When do they start wearing clothes?"

 _Oh god._

How could she possibly respond to that without sounding condescending?  
"Generally, they don't," she said, voice barely reaching above the mewling of the kittens.  
"They don't? But in my book there was a cat wearing boots and a cape. He even had a hat!"

 _Oh._

"Did that book happen to be Puss in Boots?" Saiko asked carefully. Ellie nodded enthusiastically.  
"It had a lot of pictures of a fluffy cat in it and I thought it looked cute, and mom told me they really existed so I wanted to see real ones. These are even cuter than the cat in that book was."

Saiko studied Ellie as she looked at the kittens. She looked to be absolutely fascinated with them. When a small grey kitten came up to the window, Ellie put her hand up to it, which the kitten thoroughly inspected through the glass. She giggled as it stood up on two legs and rubbed its head against the glass.

Saiko hesitated.  
"Would... Would you like to hold one?" Ellie gaped at her.  
"Can I hold this one?" she pointed at the kitten standing up.  
"Y-yes, I think that would be okay." Saiko got up, her knees shaking slightly, opened the door to the room and went in. As she picked up the kitten she looked down at Ellie, who was still crouched in front of the window. Ellie waved at her. Saiko gave a quick, nervous nod.  
Gogo's words shot through her head.  
 _"If we destroy Elleanor instead of just purifying the next Glitch she creates, it might bring Hera to us."_

She opened the door again and walked out, the grey kittens claws now firmly embedded in her shirt as it meowed up at her. She sat down next to Ellie and carefully untangled its nails from the fabric.  
"Now you have to be really gentle, kittens are very delicate," she said.  
Ellie's expression changed from wonder to slightly pained. "Maybe I shouldn't hold it, then."  
Saiko looked up at her, surprised.  
"I can't actually feel as well as humans do, Mom says. I'm afraid I might break it if I hold it too tightly. Normally I'd ask you to just fix it, but kittens are really cute and I'd feel really bad. Can cats feel pain?"  
Saiko nodded quickly, clutching the kitten a little tighter to her chest. She was relieved Ellie showed some self-awareness for once; she dreaded to think what would've happened had she just handed her the kitten without thinking about it.  
 _"If we destroy Elleanor..."_

Ellie looked totally dejected. Saiko hesitated once again.  
"You could pet it, if you'd like. If you're afraid of hurting it, you can pet my arm first and I'll tell you if it's okay."  
It felt a little weird to have Ellie's smooth, cold, inhuman hand petting her arm, but she was surprisingly careful.  
"If you do it like that, you should be fine," she smiled at Ellie.  
Carefully Ellie moved her hand to the cat's side and stroked it. Eventually she ended up stroking its face.  
"The eyes are sensitive, it's best to stick to the top of its head or it's back. Cats like that." "Oh, oops." She gently patted its head.

"Why is it buzzing?" she asked after a second. "Is it getting a phone call?"  
 _Don't laugh, Saiko._ "Cats do that for a number of reasons. But right now, he's letting you know he's happy you're petting him!"  
"That's very convenient. I like this kitten. Can I take it home?"  
"Actually, there's a process bound to adopting animals from the shelter. You can submit a form to tell us you'd like to adopt it, but I wouldn't be able to let you take it right now," Saiko said.  
"Aw, that's too bad. I guess I should ask Mom first, too. And learn how to hold a kitten, of course." Ellie laughed, and Saiko couldn't help but laugh with her.

"Is it okay if I come by to look at the cats every now and then?"  
"Yes, of course!" Saiko replied with a smile.

" _If we destroy Elleanor it might bring Hera to us."_

* * *

Ellie left the shelter feeling both happy and a little sad. Happy she got to see real cats, but sad that she couldn't take one with her. What made her even more sad was that she wasn't even sure if she'd be able to take care of it properly. She wondered if there was an alternative. Hadn't she seen a shop in the city that sold little robots; maybe they'd have a catlike one?

It wouldn't hurt to take a look.

When she reached the shop, she hesitated at the door, staring at the store sign. "If it has a face, it's probably Mori's"... Cats have faces, she figured.  
She walked inside and was greeted by another one of her classmates. She had tan skin, just like the man in the suit behind the counter, and rather untidy, short, blond hair. She was wearing a big, pink sweater with a little yellow owl on the front. Her green eyes widened in surprise when she saw Ellie.

"Hey! You're one of my classmates!" Ellie said cheerfully.  
"Am I..? I-I mean, yes! So what brings you here today, Elleanor?" the girl said, seemingly unable to compose herself.  
"Oh, just call me Ellie. I was wondering if you sold any robots who look like kittens. I want a real one but I think it's better if I get one that's a little more like me, first." She smiled at her classmate, hoping she'd be able to help her find what she was looking for. When the girl didn't answer for a moment, Ellie's face fell.  
"What's wrong, do you not have them?" She narrowed her eyes. "Or did I ask something strange..?" If she's gonna make fun of me for asking for a robot kitten, I'm gonna be so mad.

"N-no! I'm just surprised to see you here, that's all. Um, we have a few kitten robots, they're in our virtual pet collection." Her classmate -what was her name?- walked over to a shelf, and Ellie followed her.  
"Currently we only have three types. This one's really realistic, as you can see, but it takes quite a bit of maintenance because it has a lot of gears in it and it gets rather noisy when moving after a while," she pointed at a tabby cat who looked to be asleep on a pillow.  
"Wow, it looks almost real," Ellie said in awe.  
Her classmate nodded. "It's an older model, before my brothers decided to focus on making cute robots instead of ones that look like real animals and stuff." She pointed at the next robot.  
"This one is kind of an in between model. It's got fur and it's really soft! But its fur is pink which uh, real cats don't have." Her classmate looked up at Ellie expectantly, though she wasn't sure why. Ellie nodded to urge her on, so she did, still looking a little nervous.

"It can meow and it purrs when you pet it, like actual cats do. It comes with an app for your phone that you can use to feed it and make it go to sleep if you're done playing with it, but it goes asleep by itself if you stop interacting with it after a while as well. Do you have a phone?"  
Ellie shook her head. "Oh, well, that's okay, you don't really need the app, it's just a little addon really. Oh, it's also really sturdy! You can drop it or whatever and it'll be fine!"

"Could you take it off the shelf? I'd like to have a closer look at it," Ellie said. She liked the pink kitten, even though it wasn't really shaped like an actual kitten. It had slightly exaggerated features to make it cuter, but she kind of liked how it was a robot, just like her.

Her classmate took the kitten off the shelf and flipped a switch on its belly, then put it on the ground. Ellie crouched down to have a better look at it.  
It looked around and got up to walk for a bit. When Ellie held up her hand, it walked up to it and rubbed its head against her palm. She ruffled the fur on its head, less afraid of hurting it than when she'd pet the real kitten.  
"Oh, it looks like it's dragging one of its hind legs," her classmate noted. "I'll go ask my brother if he can fix that, just give me a moment!" She got up and walked to the register where the man in the suit was standing.  
Ellie studied the kitten. It did appear one of its back legs wasn't moving… She wondered if she could fix it herself. She did her own maintenance; she could probably manage taking care of a little broken robot kitten leg. It might take a while to figure out exactly how to do it though. She wondered if…

She held up her hand and produced one of the many little chips hidden away in her wiring. As she held it up to the kitten, it touched its nose to it, and a ripple of blue letters and numbers surrounded it.

What happened next wasn't quite what she'd expected.

* * *

"Oh good, you made it!" Spark said as Volt and Static approached her. All three were hovering in the air. Bit was floating next to Static.

"What's happening?" Volt said. Spark pointed at the roof of Mori's. There sat what looked like a giant, animatronic panther. It growled as it studied the Cures, looking primed to pounce.  
"Ellie came in looking for a kitten robot," Spark explained, "and when I turned my back on her she turned one of them into… That. I have no idea why, she seemed really happy before!"

Volt spotted Ellie inside of the store, staring up at the Precure, surrounded by a few people. There was a giant hole in the window next to where she was standing. There were several large gashes in the street in front of the store, and a few stories up the windows were either scratched or had holes in them.

"I don't know if I'm comfortable hurting it," Volt said in a small voice.  
"Why not? It's not a real animal. And look at all the damage it's done!" Static pointed out.  
"It still looks like a cat," Volt replied quietly. Spark flew over to her, turning her back on the panther.  
"It's okay, Volt. If you don't want to fight it, we'll-"

"Spark no, don't turn your back on it!"  
Volt didn't have time to interfere as the Glitch leapt at Spark, but Static jumped in front of it just in time, grabbed the beast by its middle, and threw it to the ground with all her strength. The asphalt cracked under its heavy weight. The panther still growled, though it made no attempt to get up. On closer inspection, Volt saw that its middle was caved in from the impact, making it unable to move its hind legs.

Volt could see Ellie shouting from inside the store.

"Phew, thanks for that," Spark said to Static, as she flew closer to the ground. Volt landed in front of the Glitch.  
Ellie stumbled outside. "Stop hurting it!"  
Static landed in front of her and gestured at the storefront.  
"Look at all the damage you've caused with your stupid toy," she shouted at her. "This city isn't your personal playground, you know? You're causing problems for everybody!"

"I just wanted a cat!"  
Ellie sounded so distraught, Volt was certain she'd be crying if she had been able to.  
Volt looked at the panther. It seemed to be regarding her, its ferocious electric blue eyes slightly less bright as when it had looked at them from the rooftop. The low rumbling tone that resembled a growl was still sounding from its maw.  
"That's not a cat, that's a monster! Can't you hear it growling at us?!" Static continued.  
"You're a monster, look at what you did to it!" Ellie retorted.

"It's not growling."

"Volt, what are you doing?" Spark said, a note of concern in her voice. Volt slowly extended a hand to the Glitch. It moved its head up ever so slightly as she did so, but did not react in another way.  
"Volt, I don't think-"  
"I know what I'm doing," Volt replied sternly. Spark backed off a little _. I know you mean well, Nana, but this one time, you don't have to worry about me._  
As she moved her hand closer to its head, the Glitch moved its head down, still rumbling. She placed her hand down on its large, cold head, and pet it. The sound it made became just a little bit louder.  
The other Cures looked at her in complete silence, as did Ellie, and the people in the shop.  
"It's not growling," she said, still stroking the giant beast's head.

"It's purring."

"It's in pain. We should purify it," she said after a second, looking at Bit, seeing if the Glitch was ready to be purified. The little robot fairy nodded.

* * *

Ellie looked on as the Pretty Cure did their job. She had never seen these three work together before. She still disliked them -even hated the purple one for being so mean!- but she didn't want to run away like she had every other time they had destroyed her creatures _. I want my kitten._

A bright flurry of colours covered her Glitch, and after a few seconds it dissipated. The giant panther had disappeared, leaving behind only a chip and a small, broken, little machine.

Bit, the Cures stupid little "robot fairy", quickly took the chip for himself. Ellie didn't care. The chips were no good to her anymore after the Cures had messed with them, anyway.

The purple one waved goodbye to the others and left together with Bit. The ones who stayed stood next to the broken robot.  
"Just go already! You're done!" Ellie yelled at them.  
The green one was about to take a step towards her, but the pink one grabbed her arm and shook her head. The green one nodded, and the two of them flew away.  
Ellie hurried towards the tiny robot lying on the street. "Oh no," she gasped. Its hind leg had almost completely come off. _That horrible purple one, Cure Static…_  
She scooped it up and took a closer look at the damage. _I should be able to fix this_ , she thought to herself.

She wasn't sure how long she'd sat there cradling the kitten, when somebody patted her on the shoulder. It was her classmate. "You can have that little 'bot, if you'd like," she said, a sad smile on her face. Ellie's eyes widened.  
"Really? Thank you so much!"  
"But please don't...turn it into a panther again," she said, face turning a little red.  
"I won't, that was a mistake. I didn't know what would happen," Ellie replied, getting up.  
"I'm really sorry for all the damage I've caused, I really am! I'll ask Mom to fix it, and… And I'll remember how kind you were to me!" She said, dashing off.

She wasn't sure, but it seemed her classmate had looked rather melancholic when she said her goodbye. She couldn't think of why.

* * *

"What's that you've got there?"

Ellie had put the kitten on her bed, an array of different tools spread around it as she tinkered with its leg.  
"It's a kitten. I got it from Mori's."  
"How kind of them! But, what's wrong with its leg?"  
"The Precure came and they broke its leg off. But I think I can still fix it," Ellie replied, re-connecting a pair of wires.  
"I've got such a smart, resourceful daughter. It's a good thing robots can be fixed like that! Humans are very difficult in that regard. Do you need any help?"  
Ellie shook her head. She replaced some small screws with a few of her own.  
"You've really taken a liking to cats, haven't you? First you ask for that book, and now you bring this one home. Where does this fascination come from?"  
"I don't know," Ellie replied absentmindedly as she very carefully reattached the leg to the body.  
She took all the tools off her bed and placed them neatly back into her maintenance box, and shoved it under her bed. She then flipped the kitten on its back, and flipped the switch, like her classmate had done. She set it back down, its legs in a sitting position.  
It turned its head to look at Ellie, and greeted her with a cheerful "mrrrrreew". Ellie smiled at it. When she pet its head, it purred. It sounded just like the kitten in the shelter.

 _I need to think of a name._


	8. Chapter 8: A Lone Decision

**8\. The Lone Decision**

The rest of the week had been nice and quiet for Gogo. She could focus on her studies and sports without worry, what with Luzia not being around to distract her and Ellie keeping up her habit of disappearing for a while after her defeat.

Nana told her that she gave Ellie the robot cat. In Gogo's opinion this was both a good thing and a bad thing: It was good because it might distract Ellie and keep her off the Precure's backs, and bad because it'd make it harder for Gogo to execute her plan.

She still thought eliminating Elleanor was a good way to get to Hera. When she'd proposed the plan to the other two Cures, they didn't seem too excited however. Gogo hadn't brought it up again after that conversation during lunch as she was afraid they'd shoot her idea down. She didn't know Nana and Saiko all that well, but she did know Nana's family ran a shop that sold robots; Mori's machines were very cutesy and acted like they were actually alive, which made Gogo wonder if Nana actually thought of machines as living things. Saiko was very shy and mostly seemed to just agree with whatever Nana said, which made it a little harder to gauge what she was really thinking.

The more Gogo thought about it and tried to think up strategies, the more she realised how little she really knew about the motherly overlord of Clairewood. Bit wasn't much help in that regard, as he kept insisting that he couldn't confirm Hera's evil intentions.

"If you don't know why we're fighting, then why did you make us Precure?" Gogo asked him heatedly after one particularly frustrating discussion with the robot fairy.

"Because that's what I'm for," Bit had simply replied. "I'm a fairy and I make the Pretty Cure, and I help them."

"Why do you know so little," Gogo had shouted. Bit didn't have a reply to that, he just looked dejected, his electric blue eyes sad.

It might've been for this reason that Bit had stuck around Gogo after she joined the other two Cures. Whenever he thought he remembered something new, he'd excitedly tell her about it. It was too bad most of his information wasn't particularly useful, but Gogo acted impressed regardless as she didn't want Bit to feel bad. _He can't help it, he's only a robot._

After he installed the chip they had gotten from the panther Glitch, he nearly knocked the lamp off Gogo's desk in excitement. "I just learned loads!" He exclaimed, flying a few feet into the air.

"Ellie is just a prototype. She's number E because there were four before her!"

"Really?" Gogo's eyes widened in apparent surprise. This info wasn't anything that exciting, but she didn't want to let Bit down. "Do you know what she was built for?"

"Yes!" Bit said gleefully. Then his eyes became a little dim, like he'd lost a bit of his elation. "She was built to… Be a girl. Just that. That's odd..."

Gogo thought for a moment, twirling the tablet pen she was using for her homework between her fingers. "Are we just talking about her body here, or her programming too?"

"Both," Bit replied. He landed back on the desk. "She was made to be a regular teen girl. If she's Hera's daughter, that makes sense. Though it doesn't explain why she can corrupt machinery..."

Gogo shrugged.

"It's not like Hera's a normal mother either. Maybe some engineer made a grave mistake, thinking they could build machines who acted like people, and this is the result. They try to oppress and hurt humans."

"I don't like it when you talk like that," Bit said.

"I'm not talking about you," Gogo said with an apologetic smile.

"But it feels like you are," Bit replied, eyes sad again. "I was built; I can do magic and I am alive, but I'm still a little like the robots you dislike so much."

Gogo sighed and put her elbows on her desk, leaning on her hands with her head, and studied Bit. "I wish we knew who made you. I wonder if they're in Clairewood right now."

"I wish I knew that too," Bit said wistfully. "I don't think I was supposed to do all of this by myself..."

Gogo smiled again. "I think you're doing a fine job. Maybe if we break Ellie we can retrieve the other chips and you'll remember everything!"

"I don't know," Bit replied, eyes cast down. "I don't think she's supposed to be able to create Glitches. I have no idea why she has that ability… From the information I have, Ellie is supposed to be a regular robot, not magical like me."

"Well, that's good!" Gogo replied. "Regular robots can be destroyed. My plan is still viable."

* * *

The next morning Gogo nearly transformed into Cure Static on instinct when she saw an all too familiar virtual idol sitting at the kitchen table next to her brother.

"W-what? How," was all she could manage.

Vilmar looked up from his tablet as Luzia was reading over his shoulder. She waved happily at Gogo.

"They sent her back yesterday, she was delivered this morning." He held up a little white and orange oval object, on it two yellow lights brightly lit up.

"What is that?" Gogo replied, only looking at the strange object for a split second before glueing her eyes back on Luzia, who smiled at her and gestured at her to take a seat.

"It runs Luzia's program. I made it a while back, it's how she can walk around as a hologram now. I'm really quite proud of it," he said, regarding the little pod-like object.

"Did you not see the ads around the city? Hera's using her as some sort of bizarre robot propaganda," Gogo exclaimed.

It was true. Ever since Hera had claimed Luzia for herself, ads had been popping up around the city featuring her. They advertized a plethora of things: Drinks, restaurants, tv-shows, and Luzia herself. They all somehow mentioned Luzia's status as an AI, as nonsensical as it was for some of them.

"As refreshing as a new set of flash drives. Cola Pop!"

"No more waiters forgetting what you ordered. Order anything, no matter how far you go off-menu. Eat at Goro's Diner!"

"Luzia 24h concert. The virtual Idol who never gets tired!"

Vilmar laughed. "She just made a copy of Luzia, and it appears to be a very shallow one because all I've seen of her is tv-ads and still images around the city district. It doesn't look like Hera used any of her actual intelligence. What I think," he started, pointing at Gogo with his teaspoon, "is that Hera wants to promote the good side of Artificial Intelligence. Because people don't like being under her rule 'n all."

"Well, it's not working." Gogo angrily grabbed a bowl from the cupboard and set it down with such force it was a miracle it didn't shatter.

"I don't remember being gone," Luzia said. "I went to sleep, and now I'm here again!"

"I figure Hera never activated you," Vilmar replied, absentmindedly swiping across his tablet.

"She just made a copy, and that's that."

"Well, I'm glad to be home!" Luzia said cheerfully, swinging her legs back and forth.

Gogo shoved the bowl of cornflakes onto the table, milk slopping over the sides as she did so.

She pulled back the chair with a yank, as if it had just insulted her, and spilled more milk on the table as she slammed a spoon into the bowl.

Vilmar sighed. "I know you don't like being here," he said calmly, "but please try to adjust yourself to our situation just a little. It'll help you feel better."

"I came here because I wanted to help you with memère," Gogo said, stirring her spoon in the bowl. "Thanks to her I can't even do that." She took a bite of her cornflakes and winced when she chomped down on the metal spoon with her incisor. _Maybe I should tone down the aggression a little..._

"I know, I'm worried about her too." Vilmar put a hand down on the table near Gogo's.

"But it's not Luzia's fault. I know you're mad about what Hera did, but hating every AI you come across won't lift the barrier faster."

Gogo put her spoon down. "I feel really powerless," she said, not meeting her brother's eyes.

This wasn't a lie. She might be a Pretty Cure, she might be really strong and have magical powers, but yet, somehow, she still felt like whatever she did didn't mean anything. Ellie's stupid Glitches were just a sidenote, Hera was the real problem. She's the one who locked them all inside of Clairewood, why couldn't Bit and the other Cures see this?

"We'll get through this. You just have to have a little faith."

"What if we all starve to death in here?" Gogo tapped her spoon on the table, still avoiding her brother's gaze.

"It's way too early to think of things like that. Either Hera will be deactivated, or she'll have a change of heart, or the outside world gets in here, or maybe the Precure will save us all. Don't lose hope, Genie."

"I guess you're right," Gogo grumbled. _I'm not planning on waiting for somebody else to fix things, though._

* * *

As her brother left to run some errands, Gogo was left alone with Luzia. After she cleaned up the table, she grabbed the little oval device which held Luzia's entire existence. She held it up, as if to show it to Luzia.

"How do I turn you off?"

Luzia reached forward, as if to grab the device, though of course, her hand went right through.

"There's a little button, right here! If you pre-" Gogo swiftly turned the device around in her hand, pressed the button, and just like that Luzia had vanished. She put the object back on the table and took a few steps back, grabbing her phone from her pocket.

"Precure, Recharge!"

The room was briefly enveloped in a bright purple light, and in Gogo's place now stood Cure Static. She pointed at Luzia's home with her left arm, and shouted: "Precure, Charge up! Override!" Static's outfit lit up, but other than that nothing happened. No beam of light shot from her hand and Luzia's device was not enveloped in a purple stream of letters and numbers.

Static frowned. _Guess Hera really didn't do anything to her._

She de-transformed, sat down, and reactivated Luzia, who popped back into existence on the same chair she had been sitting on when Gogo turned her off.

"Oh!" She said, a surprised expression on her face as she looked around. "Good morning!"

"You're not mad I turned you off?" Gogo leaned on her elbow, studying Luzia lazily.

The idol shook her head.

"Can you even get mad…?"

Luzia thought for a moment. "I don't think so. Sometimes there's subjects I do not agree with, and I feel like I should be mad, but… I don't know how."

Oh yeah, Luzia's intelligence was based on a type of mass polling, Gogo remembered.

This had required a lot of fine tuning, as when Luzia was first released people had overloaded her knowledge base with racist opinions and she couldn't utter a single sentence without peppering it with swear words. One "fun fact" Vilmar liked to tell people was how Luzia now had sixty-seven different filters to keep her mind clean.

"What do you think of the Precure?" Gogo asked, figuring it was a good way to find out Clairewood's collective opinion on their new defenders.

"I like them!" Luzia smiled. She rested her chin on her fingers that she'd laced together. It looked very dainty.

"I wonder who they are. It could be so many people, it makes my head spin!"

Gogo gathered from this that lots of people were speculating on the identity of her and her companions. How many of them were suspecting her?

"What about Glitches?"

"Bad. So bad! They break stuff, and they are ugly. Not cute at all." Luzia shook her head in an exaggerated manner, like a child would.

"...And Ellie?"

Luzia was quiet for a moment. "She is cute. But she is bad."

She squeezed one eye shut, like she strained to figure out what to say. "I think I want to be her friend."

"That sucks." Gogo blew air into her cheeks, making them swell up. If people liked Elleanor they might not respond very well to her being destroyed. Luzia didn't respond as quickly nor as enthusiastically when she'd asked her about Ellie than when she asked about the Cures, however…

"That last one took you a while to answer," she noted. Luzia nodded.

"I'm a lot more confident that I really like the Precure, and that I really don't like the Glitches, than that I like Ellie. Ellie is pretty, but she is mean. Ellie is young, but she is condescending." Ellie grabbed her head with both hands, like she was trying to block out noise that Gogo couldn't hear. "It's really conflicting!"

"Well.. If someone's young and pretty, they're still a not a very good person if they act mean and condescending, don't you think?"

More childlike nodding.

* * *

As the morning became midday Gogo worked on her school assignments. She thought about what her brother had said about her not taking her anger out on Clairewood's collective AI population. She knew inside that he was right, Luzia didn't have a single evil cell in her virtual body, and most other AI were that way, but…

Gogo bit her lip. _I just want to see memère again, and my parents._

She'd only come to Clairewood to see Vilmar and her grandmother, who her brother was taking care of. When Clairewood's barrier went up, she had been in a hospital outside of the city.

Gogo had enrolled in Clairewood High, but it had never been the plan to be there for longer than a year. When she'd arrived there, the upgrade in technology had excited her and she'd marveled at almost everything Vilmar showed her; but when Hera appeared it felt like technology was to blame for all of this. Maybe she was reacting too harshly, but she was very worried for her grandmother and her inability to find out if she was okay frustrated her to no end.

 _I need to get out of this city as quick as possible._

As if it was a sign, her phone started ringing at that moment. When she answered, a tiny hologram of Nana popped up out of the screen.

"Static, we need you here! Elleanor Glitched a garbage truck and it's running rampant!"

Gogo felt her heart jump. This was her chance.

"Where are you?" She said as she hurried to the door, phone in hand.

"I'm at the harbor, Volt is here too!"

"I'll be right there."

* * *

When she arrived at the scene she found Volt and Static frantically chasing after a giant Glitched garbage truck that had somehow ended up in the water and was using its giant malformed maw to chomp down on any boat in its path. On the concrete, looking at the spectacle, were several people who all looked to be soaked. A little further away, leaning against a container, was Ellie. She also appeared to be wet, water dripping off her uniform and her perfectly sculpted hair. She looked rather dazed.

Static wasn't sure where to begin, but eventually decided the maniacal garbage truck needed her attention first. She did a little run before she launched herself into the air and joined Spark and Volt.

"We want to lift it out of the water, but one of its ends is nothing but teeth.. It's like a giant shark or something!"

Static looked around, and her eye fell on a small cargo ship just a little further ahead.

"If we ram that in its face, it won't be able to bite us and we can lift it out of the water."

After making sure nobody was left on the boat, Static slammed it into the Glitch at full force. It's teeth sunk into the boat's metal exterior, making a very unpleasant noise as the vessel got stuck halfway down its body.

Using all of their strength, the three Cures lifted the Glitched monstrosity out of the water. Right when they found a relatively safe place to put it down, the Glitch managed to bite the cargo ship in half, spitting the unchewed half back into the water, where it slowly started sinking.

 _Clairewood must be going bankrupt pretty quickly with all the damage these Glitches are causing_ , Static thought.

They unceremoniously dropped the Glitch when Volt let go of its front with a yelp as the truck tried to bite her, cracking the concrete as it hit the ground.

 _Maybe some of that damage isn't just the Glitches' fault…_

The three Cures inspected the Glitch from a safe distance. Most of its teeth were now malformed and some had even broken off, but it still angrily snapped at the air. Static could see the original compactor machinery moving behind its teeth.

"Can we purify it?" Spark looked at Bit, who inspected the Glitch a little more closely.

"It's not that badly damaged aside from its teeth, but since there's three of you now I think you should be able to do it!" Spark looked at Volt and Static, and nodded.

"Oh no you don't!"

Static noticed just in time that Ellie tried to flee, as she always did. She sprinted over to the robot girl and grabbed her around the waist, lifting her into the air. Ellie struggled and tried to elbow Static in the face, which only made the purple cure angrier than she already felt towards the silver girl.

She didn't really think about it when she did what she did, acting more on impulse than anything else. Just when Ellie nearly freed herself from her captor's grasp, Static heaved her over her head and flung her right at the Glitch's open maw.

As if on instinct, completely unaware it was its creator that struggled within its jaws, the Glitch bit down.

Just like that, Elleanor disappeared from sight. If she made any sound at all it was drowned out by the loud creaking of the garbage compactor doing its job.

For a moment Static felt like she was glued to her spot, unable to comprehend what she'd just done, but then she took a deep breath and sighed, as if a weight had been lifted from her shoulders. _That's one down, now all that's left is Hera._

It came as quite a surprise to her when Volt rushed over and tried to hit her.

"Why did you do that?!" she cried, Spark struggling to hold her friend back as she grabbed at Static.

"Why are you mad? That's Hera's daughter, she's endangered people's lives, you should be happy she's out of the picture," Static replied, slightly baffled by Volt's aggressive demeanor.

"She just wanted to go for a swim! She panicked when she sank to the bottom and she Glitched that truck to fish her out of the water," Volt yelled, tears streaming down her face.

Static took a step back and frowned. "Why'd she Glitch that truck if she could've gone for a boat, that makes a lot more sense."

"She panicked!"

Static took another step back. "She's a robot, she can't actually panic. She's not a living thing, you know." She looked at Spark, who had been silent so far, hoping maybe she'd support her, but the pink Cure just shook her head.

Static felt a lot of negative emotions at once. She felt a sudden pang of guilt, a sense of betrayal, and on top of that anger swelled inside her once again. She wasn't sure if she wanted to cry or scream, so all she did was distance herself more from them, her hands balled into fists at her sides. She glanced over at the Glitch, which had stopped snapping, then looked back to the two other Cures.

"You can probably take care of that without my help." She quickly turned around and flew away. The excitement she'd felt for joining the team had died.

* * *

On her way home she realized the people that had been sitting on the pier might have filmed the whole ordeal. This thought made her feel sick, if everyone reacted as poorly as Volt had…

It would take her about an hour to get home from the harbor, that was loads of time for people to spread the news.

With trembling fingers she opened the front door to her apartment. She hadn't even thought of what she was gonna say to her brother about where she'd been. _Maybe I should just tell him the truth, he knows anyway_.

She found Vilmar sitting on the couch in front of the television. She noticed Luzia's device sitting next to him on the arm rest, though it appeared it wasn't on as the little lights on it weren't glowing.

She expected him to ask her where she'd been, or at least look concerned, but he just smiled at her.

"What did you do to your hair," she asked after a few seconds, noticing some of his dreadlocks were purple. He didn't have that this morning.

"Ah, this?" Vilmar turned his head and pointed at the purple dreads, as if Gogo could possibly be talking about something else, "I did this in support of my favourite Cure."

Gogo bit the inside of her lip so hard it hurt. _Don't cry._

"She must feel pretty lonely sometimes with how close Cure Volt and Cure Spark seem to be, and I want her to know that there's someone rooting for her."

 _You know it's me, why don't you just say it?_

Gogo let out a frustrated sigh and dropped down next to Vilmar on the couch.

"You're not gonna like her much after what she did today," she said, without looking at her brother.

"And why is that?"

"What, haven't you seen it on the news?" What had happened at the harbor must've been on the news, or on the internet at the very least. As if it mattered, Gogo not admitting her identity of Cure Static had become a game of keep away by now anyway.

"It's kind of hard to miss," Vilmar admitted, and he turned on the tv.

"A mistake or pure ill intent? The Pretty Cure, who have been protectors of Clairewood for a little over a month, have taken rather drastic measures to prevent future Glitch attacks."

Gogo cringed when they showed footage of her throwing Ellie into the Glitch.

"They've been showing reruns of this for about half an hour now. I guess Hera's not too happy with it."

Maybe her plan would still work, but Gogo doubted she could handle Hera on her own. Besides, she didn't really want to do Precure stuff anymore for at least a while.

"Do heroes really do stuff like this, murder robots like that?"

"You can't really murder a machine."

"But she was so much like a real girl!"

The tv-show hosts went on. Gogo started feeling sick.

"Throwing such a lifelike robot into a garbage truck isn't very heroic, I guess," she mumbled.

Vilmar put his arm around his little sister. "I think," he said as he rubbed her shoulder, "that she had good intentions. In fact, I know so. It might look like people are up in arms about it, but remember that Hera controls the Clairewood media, she wouldn't let us see people who think that what Cure Static did is a good thing. Cure Static just wants to return everything back to normal. I bet she has loved ones on the outside, just like everyone else." He pulled her into a hug.

"Whatever happens, I'll keep supporting her."

 _Cure Static is gonna take a little break and reflect,_ Gogo thought to herself.


	9. Chapter 9: Three Sisters

[sorry for the lack of updates!]

 **9\. Three Sisters**

"Tomorrow's the day!"  
Yon excitedly jumped up and down in the Mori kitchen.  
"Hibiscus Hell Juice's first real opening for a group!"

Nana wanted to be excited for her, and somewhere deep inside she was, but all she could manage was a simple smile. Any happy emotion seemed to be suppressed by the awful memory of Ellie inside that Glitches' maw.

It had taken hours to calm Saiko down, Nana had never seen her so distraught. Afterwards she'd tried to contact Gogo, but she hadn't responded; according to her phone she hadn't even read the messages Nana had sent her.  
They'd been a team for only a few weeks and had fought all of two Glitches together before it went wrong. Bit said he hoped they could make up soon, but Nana wasn't sure.

Like Saiko, she disapproved of what Cure Static had done, but it's not like she didn't understand why she'd done it.

 _We lack proper teamwork_ , Nana concluded. Cure Circuit still being an absolute mystery didn't help. What was she even up to? Unlike the other Cures, she had never been in the news. If she really was that idol singer like Saiko believed, they'd see her very soon; but if she was, wouldn't that make it near impossible to work together with her _? I thought fighting monsters would be the biggest problem of being a Precure, who'd have thought it would be my team members instead..._

"I could probably get you backstage passes," Yon said cheerily. It took Nana quite some energy to pretend to be excited at that prospect.  
"I uh, I think Saiko would faint if she could be so close to Sorella."  
Yon's face fell, and she sat down next to Nana, her happy expression now changed to a concerned one.  
"Is everything alright? You seem really down today," she said quietly, putting a hand on Nana's shoulder. Shuya, who was making dinner at the kitchen block behind her, seemed to pay them no mind.

Nana shook her head. "Don't worry about it, I'll be okay."  
"Did something happen at school?"

Yon was not great at consoling people. Nana appreciated her attempt and she felt flattered that Yon cared so much about her, but in a lot of ways she didn't seem capable of treating Nana like an adult. To be fair, she wasn't an adult quite yet, but she wasn't a child either. Yon had a tendency to talk to Nana like she was her mother or something. Nana liked to think of her as an older sister, but she made that difficult at times.

Nana gripped at her knees, wrinkling her baggy sweater.  
"I… kind of had a fight with a friend."  
"Oh man, that sucks. What happened?"  
She thought for a moment. How best to put this?

"She got in a fight with one of our classmates, and she hurt her pretty bad. And then another friend of mine got mad at her for it, and I sort of took that other friend's side. And I guess now she- the first friend I mean, she doesn't talk to us anymore."  
"I think you did the right thing. Resorting to violence is never the right option," Yon said wisely. Nana cocked a brow at her.  
"I didn't expect that from you, with the lyrics you sing."  
"That's music, Nana, not high school! And they're about kicking the government's ass, or corrupt politicians, or… Y'know, bad adults. Not kids."

Nana chuckled.  
"Maybe I'm not the best person to talk about that subject," Yon admitted. "I say, give it a little time. That friend will come around. How is that classmate doing? Are they okay?"  
Nana didn't have an immediate answer to that.

"Dinner's ready! Can you get You, Nana? He's still closing the shop." Shuya turned around, holding a big ladle in one hand.  
Yon got up.  
"I'll do it, I have to go anyway. I have an appointment."  
Shuya looked a little dejected. "This late? I made extra food for you and everything..."  
"I'm sorry, Shu. But I'll come back for it later! This appointment shouldn't take more than half an hour or so, probably. And I'm not gonna pass up on Shuya Mori's cooking!" Yon winked and skipped out the door.  
"We might as well adopt her, she's here more than she's at her own home," Shuya sighed, a smile on his lips.

Yon did not return for dinner that evening.

* * *

When Nana met Saiko the following evening, she was visibly shaking. She held two sticks in her hand, and was clenching them so tightly Nana worried they might break.

"I'm so excited I could die," Saiko said with trembling voice, "I'm also so stressed I could die."  
Nana smiled and held out her arm, which Saiko took. Having a bit of support might help her stop shaking, it had worked before.  
"What are you stressed for? You're not getting up on that stage."  
"I've never seen them live before!"  
"Yon said she might be able to get us backstage passes."  
"No! No, that would be way too much pressure."  
Nana laughed.

"Please try to enjoy yourself when you're done stressing out. Do you know where Bit is, by the way? I expected he'd be with you." Saiko shook her head.  
"He's with Cure Circuit. He said Gogo threatened to break him too if he stayed neared her. She's such a violent girl." Saiko frowned.

Nana had hoped the subject of their fight with Cure Static wouldn't come up today. She still felt really conflicted about what had transpired, though she seemed to be the only one. From what she knew, Gogo was still thoroughly convinced destroying Ellie had been the right course of action, whereas Saiko acted like Gogo had committed murder.  
Nana thought that letting some time pass and waiting for Hera's reaction would be smart, but that might be difficult if Saiko would keep bringing up that dreadful event.

"So uh, what are those?" she said as she pointed at the sticks in Saiko's hand. Her face cleared up a little.  
"Oh, they're lights! They're for waving during the concert, you know, in time with the songs." She pressed a little button on the side of one of the sticks, and it lit up blue. "This is Mimi's colour. You're supposed to make the stick this colour when she has a solo." She pressed it again, and the stick turned into a mix of yellow and black stripes, like the back of a bee. "These are Raina's colours. She's the middle one so she gets two." When she pressed it a final time, the stick turned yellow. "And this is Rae's colour! For her solo. But uh, I'll probably leave it on this colour for the whole concert." Saiko flushed.

"Yellow is Rae? If your theory is correct, that's pretty fitting!" Nana smirked.  
"I thought of that as well, but I thought you guys would make fun of me if I mentioned it," Saiko said, now a light shade of fire engine red.

* * *

Clairewood's concert hall was a very large building with a giant dome in the middle, just a little off the highway that lead out of the city. The Sorella concert took place on the biggest stage, right under the dome. The ceiling was in reality an enormous screen, which now showed a deep blue and purple sky that was swirling with stars, making it seem like the concert was taking place on a space station with a view of the Milky Way.

Nana looked around, feeling slightly puzzled. She held one of the sticks in her hand, clicking between the different colours absentmindedly as she studied the people around her. They had standing places and had made it very close to the stage; partly because they were among the shorter people there. This wasn't too surprising as most of the other concert-goers appeared to be mostly men.

"That's weird," Nana noted, "I thought we'd see more people from school here. Or you know, our age, at least." Saiko now looked around too. Apparently she hadn't noticed they were in the minority.  
"There were lots of girls outside when we were waiting in line. I guess the more dedicated fans just happen to be men." She shrugged. Nana leaned in a little closer to her.  
"Don't you think that's a little strange? Aren't Sorella our age?"  
Saiko didn't seem to understand what Nana meant, and she shook her head. "They're a little older. Mimi is the youngest and she's seventeen. And everyone around us seems to be college-aged, so they're probably around that age too. I imagine they're like me!"  
Nana couldn't help but laugh at that. "Like you? What do you mean?"  
"When you're a little down, or you've had a hard day at work, Sorella will always be there to cheer you up. In a way, they really feel like sisters. Rae always asks how you're doing every day and she makes sure you don't forget to take some time for yourself and relax. I can see how that'd appeal to older people, too."

Nana looked at one of the big screens just off the side of the podium that displayed a Sorella poster, and shrugged.  
"They're also just really pretty. Rae sure has long legs."  
It was hard to tell in the semi-dark room but Nana was pretty sure Saiko had turned scarlet once again.

* * *

After a few minutes of the audience blaring along to pre-recorded Sorella songs blasting through the hall's speakers, Nana got a little worried. Shouldn't Hibiscus Hell Juice be performing now?

As if she could read her mind, Saiko asked: "Where's Yon's band?"  
"I don't know. Yesterday she was super excited about today… Maybe they're still setting up?"  
Nana remembered Yon leaving their house yesterday, saying she had an appointment. It was definitely strange that she hadn't come back later that night, she'd said she would… Nana's insides turned to ice as a sudden realisation hit her. No, it couldn't be.

Right as Nana opened her mouth to address her concerns to Saiko, the stage lit up. The lights turned to the centre, and a girl appeared from behind the curtains.

She was wearing a simple black dress with short sleeves tied into ribbons. Underneath she wore soft yellow tights, with open-toed pumps underneath. She was carrying a stool under one arm and had a guitar slung on her back.

The room went quiet at once. Nana heard Saiko gasp.  
The girl put down her stool and sat down on it. She began tuning her guitar. Her honey coloured hair was tied in a slightly messy bun on top of her head. Nana could see her golden eyeshadow glittering from several feet away.  
Some people started cheering. The girl smiled as she continued tuning the guitar.

Nana elbowed Saiko. "Is that Rae?" Saiko nodded frantically, clutching the yellow light tightly in her hand, not taking her eyes off the girl on stage.

"I hope you all don't mind me tuning this thing," Rae spoke. More cheering.  
"IT'S OKAY RAE WE LOVE YOU," a shout came from right behind Nana, startling her.  
"I haven't had a lot of time to prepare for this," Rae continued, finally done tuning. She looked up at the audience. The screens on the side of the stage changed to show a close-up of her face.  
She was very pretty. Obviously, or she wouldn't have been an idol. Could she really be Cure Circuit?

"The opening band couldn't attend, so, I'll be singing you some acoustic versions of some Pink Diamond songs until Raina and Mimi are ready. You know how it is with little sisters," Rae smiled. Some audience members laughed, while most continued cheering. "Sorella is a sub-unit of Pink Diamond, the full group has eight members," Saiko whispered to Nana, though none of her words registered.

Saiko sang along with the songs Rae played, as did most of the audience as a sea of golden lights illuminated the hall like stars.

Nana, meanwhile, felt sick. Why had Yon's band canceled? Her suspicions seemed to become dangerously close to being correct. She quickly shot Yon a message on her phone. She might get a response, though she didn't deem that likely. She took a deep breath and refocused her attention on Rae. Her singing voice was high and sweet, not really Nana's thing.

"Nana, your light is the wrong colour," Saiko said cheerfully between songs.  
"Huh? Oh, oops," Nana said absentmindedly, changing the light from blue to yellow. She didn't really want to bother Saiko with her worries now Saiko finally seemed to let loose a little and enjoy herself.  
"I really think it's her," Saiko whispered, positively beaming. "Don't you think she's got the air of a real hero?"  
"I think she has the air of a pop idol," Nana said honestly.  
"It's totally her," Saiko said as she turned back to look at Rae, who cleared her throat to start a new song.

Nana felt her phone buzz in her pocket. To her surprise, Yon had answered her message.

 _[Hey yon, everything alright?]_

 _[Oh, yes. Don't worry about me!]_

She quickly tapped a new message. Before she could put her phone away, Yon answered.

 _[Where are you?]_

 _[I am home. I am sorry for not coming back for the dinner yesterday. I told Shuya sorry!]_

 _[Why aren't you here? You had a concert, remember?]_

 _[Yes, I know. We thought about it for a while and collectively decided it wouldn't be the right thing to do today.]_

Nana's heart sank. Not knowing what else to say to Yon, she put her phone away. Just at that moment the entire hall was engulfed with the sound of applause and cheering as Rae took a bow and walked off the stage.  
"Wasn't that just- Nana, whats wrong?" Saiko put a hand on Nana's shoulder, her joy promptly replaced by concern.  
"They turned Yon and her friends into Dociles." Saiko's eyes widened.  
"What? How did you-"

Suddenly the hall went black. The only light now came from the little sticks the audience members were holding, though they didn't do much to brighten up the place.  
"I would like your attention, please."  
An all too familiar voice boomed all around them.  
"Oh no," Saiko whimpered. "It's her!"

The ceiling turned back on, though this time it showed a picture of a fifties housewife instead of a night sky. Her happy face contrasted starkly with the tone of her voice, which was full of cold fury and disappointment.  
"As you all undoubtedly know, my daughter was cruelly taken from me. The culprits were the Precure, who, until yesterday, I considered our allies."

Saiko grabbed Nana's arm, her eyes wide with fear.  
"This message is being broadcast throughout all of Clairewood. I would like your help finding the Precure. I have misjudged them, thinking they were kind heroes who would help keep Clairewood safe. But if they are capable of doing this-"  
The screen flicked to the footage of Static throwing Ellie into the garbage truck. Nana had seen the footage several times now as the news talked about nothing else since it had happened, but the crunching still made her stomach turn. Saiko covered her ears.  
"-who knows what they will do to citizens that get in their way. That is why I want you all to help me find them. Cure Spark, Cure Volt, Cure Static, and the elusive Cure Circuit."

Whispers started up in the hall. "There's four?" whispered somebody nearby.  
"I know they will see this, but they keep their identities hidden from even the people they claim to protect. If you have any tips or ideas of where they are, you know how to reach me. Do not keep them hidden from me. I will find out."

"That's not very kind of you, threatening your children like this, mother."  
Everyone's heads turned to the source of this new voice, which came from the stage. A few of the stage lights came on, and there she stood: Cure Circuit.

"Where did she come from?!" Somebody hissed.  
Circuit put her arms at her sides and her feet together, and then bowed.

"I'm very sorry about what happened to your daughter. I assure you this was not a decision made with consent of the whole team."  
"She called the Precure a team," Saiko hissed in Nana's ear while still crushing her arm, though now out of excitement rather than fear.  
"I can't imagine how you must feel. I'd like to apologise on behalf of all of us." Circuit looked up at Hera.  
"That is very mature of you. Yet you keep your face hidden from me. You keep it hidden from all of Clairewood. Why is that?"  
Circuit didn't answer right away. She continued bravely looking up at Hera's portrait.

"We're your children, like the rest of the city," she finally began, "and some of us are young. It wouldn't be… convenient, if everyone knew who we were."  
"Not even your own mother?" Hera retorted.  
"My _real_ mother isn't here. And I'd prefer to stay Cure Circuit to you. I'm sorry, mother." _Damn._

"You took my daughter from me," Hera said in a low growl, though Circuit didn't look deterred. Instead she spread out her arms, gesturing to the audience.  
"Aren't they all your children? Shouldn't you keep them safe, instead of starting a manhunt that could potentially put them in danger? You're frightening them, mother."

"That was not my intention," Hera replied, a slight tone of worry in her voice.  
"In due time, we'll come to you ourselves. I want everyone to know that the Precure mean the people of Clairewood no harm. We have the same goal, mother."  
Hera did not reply.  
"If I could give you your daughter back, I would, but sadly I cannot. Please don't take your anger out on your other children."  
"I am not. I want what's best for them. We will speak again, Precure."  
The lights turned off once more, the hall now engulfed in darkness. When the starry sky returned, Circuit had disappeared.

"She's so cool! I almost don't care Hera practically threatened to murder us," Saiko said. They didn't really have to worry about anyone overhearing their conversation as now the whole hall was buzzing with noise.  
"She talked as if we're all working together, yet she's never tried to contact us. What is she up to?"  
"Maybe she wants to join the team? I hope so!"

The room went quiet once again as a new, childish voice sounded through the hall.  
"Wow, that ruined like, our entire entrance!"  
"Now now Mimi, that was clearly something important. But let's focus on the show for now!" That was Rae's voice.  
"Are you ready?" A third voice.

The curtains went up, and there stood three girls, their backs turned to the audience. People started cheering as Sorella started their first song as if nothing had happened at all.

* * *

To Nana it felt like the concert went by in thirty minutes at most, as she didn't spend a single second focusing on Sorella. Her mind was full of thoughts about Hera, Cure Circuit, and Yon.

During break something odd happened that caught her attention for a brief moment.  
One of the idols, shorter than Rae but taller than the childish girl, walked to the front of the stage as the other two stayed a few feet behind her. Her hair was black on one side and blond on the other, though the way it was styled now her hair appeared to have blond highlights, tied into a playful ponytail on her left shoulder. Her dress was striped black and yellow. This had to be Raina.

"This is a… Strange time we live in right now. As you know, Mimi, Rae, and me aren't from Clairewood. The city is beautiful and you've all treated us very well, we've loved our time here, but… I'm sure you can all relate when I say I miss my family and the rest of Pink Diamond sometimes."  
A collective "Awww" sounded through the hall.  
Raina balled her microphone-free hand into a fist and looked into the hall with a determined expression. "But we have to stay strong. If we keep believing, we'll see them again. Until then, know that we have your back! You've been great brothers and sisters to us. And I'm really grateful so many of you listen to my rambling every morning," she added, laughing and looking embarrassed. The audience cheered her on.  
"I'm sorry if I just made some of you feel a little down. We'll try to cheer you up with our next song!"  
Nana's mind went back to Hera, Cure Circuit, and Yon.

* * *

When the concert ended and people poured out of the hall, Nana overheard conversations about both the concert and the Precure.

"I hope they give another concert soon!"  
"Mimi was so annoyed at the interruption. You know how huffy little sisters get!"  
"I think Raina is Cure Circuit."

She heard the last sentiment uttered more than once. Raina's speech during the break had many people convinced, Saiko seemed to be the only one who thought it was Rae instead. Due to her voice being distorted and both girls having the same accent, Nana really couldn't tell. Well, our disguise wouldn't be very good if I could, I guess.

Nana and Saiko stayed in the lobby of the concert hall for a bit after the concert. Nana absentmindedly stared at a poster for another concert, lost in thought.  
"Oh yeah, she's getting pretty popular, isn't she," Saiko said as she put the drinks down she got for the both of them.  
"Who is?"  
"Luzia, on the poster. She's the first . I think the name is pretty stupid, but she's cute." Saiko held up her drink, which had a picture of Luzia on the side.  
"Man, you're really susceptible to all this idol stuff."  
Saiko chuckled, scratching her head in embarrassment.

* * *

"Hey Nana. How was the concert?" You said as he opened the door for her.

"Saiko had a good time. Have you seen Yon?" You's face fell and he opened the door to the kitchen. "Please don't panic," he said.

Facing away from Nana was a girl with pink and blue toned hair. She was wolfing down the dinner Shuya had made for her, as if she hadn't eaten for days. Her mannerisms were just like Yon's.  
"Aah, Shu, that was really good. If I could, I'd eat your cooking every day." Her laugh sounded just like Yon's, too. Then she turned around.  
"Oh, hey Nana. Sorry for not telling you about the concert. Did you enjoy it?"  
The blue rings around her eyes, however, were nothing like the Yon Nana knew at all.


	10. Chapter 10: A Rendezvous

**10\. A Rendezvous**

From that evening forth, Nana avoided Yon as much as possible. She locked Bit in her room whenever he was with her and spent most of her time holed up in there with him whenever Yon was over at the Mori residence.

When she filled her plate with food to take back to her makeshift bunker for the fourth time that week, Shuya stopped her.  
"You're being ridiculous. Take a seat and eat at the dinner table."  
"I don't want to eat here when she's like that," Nana mumbled, throwing a brooding look at an unassuming Yon.  
"She's still the same person, you can barely tell she's been… altered," Shuya hissed at her, having difficulty finding the right words. When Nana attempted to walk away, he grabbed her arm and pulled her down into a chair.  
She didn't get up, but instead just stared at her plate with a defiant expression. She could feel Yon looking at her.

"Well everyone, dig in!" Shuya said as he sat down himself.  
"Thanks for letting me stay here so much," Yon began, a hint of sadness in her voice, "I hope it's still okay."  
"Of course," You said, "you'll always be welcome here. Nana's just being a little childish," he said as he threw an accusing look at his little sister.  
Yon also looked at Nana, her face still apologetic. Shuya was right, she didn't seem to be any different aside from the bright blue rings around her pupils, the black chip that accompanied it hidden under her multi-coloured bangs.

Mulling it over in her mind, Nana wondered if it might be a good idea to use this opportunity to ask Yon some questions. The only other docile Nana knew personally was miss Helding, but she was a teacher and Nana didn't talk to her outside of independence class.  
She didn't know how closely connected to Hera the docile were. They either just had certain thoughts suppressed by that chip, or Hera could monitor everything they saw and heard, depending on who you talked to. _Was it even possible for Hera to invade people's minds that extensively?_

"Do you feel any different," she asked after a short pause, circling her spoon on the table and not looking Yon in the eyes.  
Yon blinked in apparent surprise of the question after getting the silence treatment from Nana for so long.  
"Not really. I remember going to the business district. I think I got knocked out at some point, but I don't know how or why. I also remember…" She scrunched up her face, like it hurt to think this hard, "I remember panicking."  
She looked at Nana, seemingly expecting more questions.  
"How do you feel about it, now? The chip, I mean." Yon's face relaxed in the same way miss Helding's face would sometimes whenever someone asked a question deemed too risky.  
"Nothing, really. It's just there. Inside I feel like I should be very upset, but… I'm just not."

Shuya and You were intently listening along. From this, Nana gathered they'd never asked Yon anything about her docile procedure, which she found strange. Maybe they were used to seeing docile people in the store?

Nana grabbed the spoon a little tighter. "Do you think Hera has direct control over you…? Can.. Can she read your thoughts?" She felt her cheeks grow hot; hearing herself say it out loud made her realise how silly this notion really was.

Yon shook her head. "There are some things I think differently about. Some songs I don't want to sing anymore. I think if I forced myself to, I could still sing them, I could probably think bad thoughts, but I've lost all the will to do so. I think…" Yon hesitated. She picked at her nail polish nervously, as if debating if she should continue or not. "...I think bad things would happen if I did those things. That is why they are blocked from my mind."  
"What kind of bad things?"  
Yon didn't answer right away, still picking at her nails. She'd cleared most of the paint off two of them.  
"I don't know," she eventually said, staring at the table in front of her, her eyes looking blank.  
"Bad things to you, or to others?" You had joined in the questioning. He moved his chair a little closer to Yon, as if to comfort her.  
"All of us."

This sounded so ominous Nana promptly let go of her spoon. It clattered down on the table, which seemed to snap Yon out of her eerie mood.  
"I'm still me, I promise," she said, looking at each of the Mori siblings in turn. "I'm just not that rebellious anymore."  
Shuya chuckled. "To be fair, that was a pretty big chunk of your personality."  
"Don't worry, Yon," You said, seeing how her face had fallen after Shuya's remark, "as I said, you'll always be welcome here."

After dinner, Yon helped Nana with the dishes. They owned a dishwasher but it had broken down after Shuya had tried to alter it one too many times. It now produced a large amount of foam whenever it was turned on, and he hadn't figured out yet how to make it stop.  
Yon washed the dishes while Nana dried them. She handed Nana a plate, and without looking at her, asked: "Is that why you've been having dinner in your room?"  
 _Looks like Hera didn't block her bluntness.  
_ "Yes," Nana admitted quietly. "You used to be wary of them too, you know. Dociles, I mean."  
Yon laughed.  
"I know, Nana! I still have all my memories. I don't like the term "dociles". Sounds like cattle, or something."  
"You kinda are. You're Hera's cattle." Yon laughed again, and Nana couldn't help but smirk herself.  
"Maybe I should start wearing a tag in my ear."  
Now Nana couldn't help but laugh.

It was weird, she'd expected Yon to be a lot less human, being a docile, and she'd certainly sounded that way when Nana had texted her during the Sorella concert, but when the subject wasn't anything that could be considered "rebellious", Yon was the exact same person she was before.

Yon scratched at her forehead with a soapy hand. "This thing itches like crazy sometimes," she said, an irritated expression on her face.  
"Does it actually go into your head?" Nana asked, handing her a towel.  
"I don't know. I'm afraid to actually touch it. I let Shuya take a look at it but then he started _pulling at it_." Yon raised her voice at the end of her sentence and threw an angry look at Shuya, who was sat at the table working on his laptop. He looked up and airily shoved his glasses a little further up the bridge of his nose. "I wanted to see if it would come off."  
"It didn't," Yon said, voice still raised.  
"It's definitely inside her head. I already figured some component of it would be inside of her skull because it's clearly doing something to her brain, but there was always the chance the external part would be removable, like certain types of hearing aids."  
"You could've asked me before you tried to tear it out of my head," Yon grumbled.  
"I thought you might be okay with it. You used to really hate Hera, I figured you'd want that device off your temple as quickly as possible. But it seems that thing doesn't just suppress thoughts, it also makes sure you won't remove it yourself…Or let anyone else try."

Shuya held up his arm. Nana gasped when she saw it had bite marks all over it, two on his hand apparently so deep Shuya had felt the need to bandage it up.  
Yon looked at Nana with wide eyes, like a dog that had just been caught doing something bad.  
"It _really_ hurt," was all she managed in defense.

After cleaning up, Nana retreated to her room. She could hear Yon talk to her brothers, apparently not intent on leaving anytime soon. Bit greeted her with a cheerful bleep.  
"Sorry I've locked you up in here," Nana said as she sat down on the edge of her bed.  
"That's okay. It's not like I flew around the rest of your house much before, anyway!"

Nana's eyes fell on an object in front of Bit on her end table.  
"What's that?"  
It looked like her Cure Bracelet, only it was pure white. The cat's face was blank.  
"It's a bracelet like yours, but it's unfinished. It's just a prototype, I don't think it works."

Nana picked it up. The bracelet had a kind of otherworldly feel to it, just like her own bracelet, but it lacked something. Her Cure Bracelet felt _powered_ in some way, even when she wasn't Cure Spark. The white bracelet, on the other hand, felt cold and empty.

"Where did you get this?" she asked Bit. Bit shook his head slightly, as a sort of stand-in for a shrug, which he couldn't, seeing he had no shoulders to speak of.  
"I've had it since I woke up. I didn't do anything with it as it doesn't have any magic in it, unlike the other four bracelets. I also know I was only supposed to find four Cures, not five. I took it out because I only now realise it's a bit odd I have it… It doesn't work, why do I own this?"

Nana suddenly realised she'd never asked Bit something that normally had high priority for her and the other Cures due to the circumstances of their last battle.  
"Did you get any new information from... From the wreckage left after our last Glitch fight?"  
There really was no other way to describe what was left after Spark and Volt had purified the garbage truck Glitch. Neither of them had taken a closer look, but from far away Ellie's remains looked like scrap metal with some cloth wrapped around it. It had been a tough decision, but Spark had decided it was better to get Volt away from the scene and try to calm her down. When she and Bit had returned by themselves later that evening, Ellie's body was gone.|

"I didn't check," Bit admitted. "Gogo told me about her plans, but I didn't think she'd actually do it without talking it over with you and Saiko." His bright blue eyes looked sad; it was clear he felt responsible in some way. Nana wasn't sure how to comfort a robot fairy, so she put a hand on his head and lightly stroked it.  
"I think Ellie must've been very important in some way, because some of the chips contained information about her."  
"When I became a Precure, it really sounded like Ellie would be the big bad villain," Nana said.  
"She woke up wrong," Bit replied. Nana remembered this was something he said when they'd first met.  
"What do you mean by that?"  
Bit took a moment to reply. For a split-second, the eyes on his display distorted.  
"It's not just her. There's a lot of things that aren't the way they should be," he said, "but I don't know why, or how, or even _what_!" Bit made an annoyed bleeping noise and flew a few inches off the table, the top of his body spinning. When he landed again, he landed on the bed, his eyes still sad. "I'm a fairy but I can't even get the Cures to work together." Nana patted him.

"And even if I could, I can't tell them what they're fighting for because even _I_ don't know." Tiny bleeps escaped Bit, what Nana deciphered as being small sobs.  
"Please don't say that," Nana said. She actually felt a lump growing in her throat; it was absolutely heartbreaking to see Bit like this. "It's not your fault. You've done everything you could. Please don't feel bad!" She sat down on the bed and held Bit in her arms, petting him on the head. After a little while he stopped sobbing.

"As long as we keep fighting, we can protect Clairewood. And that's because you found us," Nana whispered, unsure if Bit had stopped crying because he'd calmed down or fallen asleep.  
He swiveled his face around to look at Nana. His eyes no longer looked sad, instead they now were determined. "Thank you, Nana. As long as you keep fighting, I'll be there to guide you! Even if I don't know everything, I-" Bit hiccuped, "...I won't give up!"

* * *

The next day she went off to school, Bit tucked away in her backpack. She rolled her eyes when she came across yet another billboard of Luzia on her way to the bus stop.  
It seemed Hera had replaced Ellie with her, though Luzia was a lot more vindictive than Ellie had been, in a very off-putting saccharine way.

"Please don't walk away!" the billboard pleaded. Nana long since had stopped waiting for the billboard to finish its message, seeing as it had been the same every single time and she'd passed about thirty of them the past week, and by now she knew its message by heart.  
" _Something terrible has happened in our city. I tear up just thinking about it! The Pretty Cure, those girls we've trusted to protect us for weeks, have turned on us! Look what they did! Would anyone heroic ever do something as heinous as murder a girl, robot or not? I don't think so! What's worse, they're not telling us who they really are! They're running from their crimes, how shameful. If you know anything, anything at all, about who the Precure are, please tell me? Please, pretty please? It'd make me so happy! It's for the good of the city."_

The entire message was riddled with over-exaggerated cutesy movements, from crying to pleading to cheering. The fact that Luzia's message once again showed the footage of Ellie's demise was like an extra slap in the face. All in all, the ad made Nana want to vomit. Hera had stopped threatening her own people like she'd done at the concert, but she had started a manhunt on the Pretty Cure.  
They'd been a little worried about this at first, but Bit reassured them nobody could ever find out who they were thanks to his protection.

At school people didn't seem to talk about anything else now. Possible candidates were discussed, though nobody had suspected Nana or Saiko. The theory that Raina was Cure Circuit seemed to be doing the rounds in the school, too.

Even Hera's morning message had been replaced by the stupid Luzia ad. By day three people were mockingly imitating her. During independence class someone asked Ms. Helding why Hera had prioritised the Precure manhunt over establishing contact with the outside world. Ms. Helding didn't have an answer to that.  
The atmosphere in the school was very peculiar. People didn't seem to think what Cure Static had done was inherently wrong. Nana had heard people express pity for Ellie; _"even if she can't feel anything, that's a terrible way to go,"_ but nobody seemed to hate the Precure. If anything they seemed to idolize them and only speculated about their true identities out of interest, not because they wanted to give them up to Hera.

Nana wondered if the sentiment was the same in the rest of the city, and how Hera felt about it. She read everyone's messages, she had to know about it, right?

As Nana left school that afternoon accompanied by Saiko, her backpack suddenly started to move around. She slid it down her arm and zipped it open, revealing one of Bit's eyes in the darkness. "I've got great news!" He said, slightly muffled by the bag. "Cure Circuit wants to meet with you!"  
Saiko gasped so dramatically that Nana thought she'd seen a ghost.  
"She wants to meet you at the abandoned airport. I can take you to her!"  
"Wait, right now?"  
Saiko next to her let out a barely audible squeal.  
"Yes!"

* * *

When they arrived at the airport, they saw the window Static had shattered was still broken. As it appeared the building didn't have any electricity, they went in through the broken window.

"She's in the passengers only section," Bit declared as he flew out of Nana's bag. Now that it was daylight while they were there, the airport wasn't particularly dark. The security section however didn't have any windows and therefor _was_ very dark. The only lights to guide them were their phones and Bit. They had to climb over several security gates.  
"I already don't like this part of the airport when it's in use," Saiko grumbled after she'd tripped over one of the gates, "it being in pitch-darkness doesn't make it any better. Cure Circuit better actually be Rae or this is _so_ not worth it!"

They went through the door after security, which was a lot brighter as sunlight flooded in through the giant glass windows. The passenger only section of the airport appeared to be several stories up.

"There she is! Circuit!" Bit flew down over the railing, to a lower section where a girl appeared to be sitting in an area designated for travelers to wait until they could board their planes.  
 _She's transformed._ Saiko made her way to the escalators a little to their left, but Nana stopped her.  
"Should we transform? She has. Maybe it's not smart to reveal ourselves like this."  
Saiko frowned at Nana. "Why not? We're here to work together, right? It doesn't matter."  
"Are you coming?" Bit called from downstairs.  
"Bit trusts her!" Saiko said with a grin. Nana supposed she was right about that.

They made their way down by the escalators (which weren't on), and Circuit got up to greet them.  
Nana felt pretty at ease; they'd met Cure Circuit before after all, but Saiko was practically exuding an aura of nervousness. Neither of them said anything, expecting Circuit to take the lead. That she did, though she didn't greet them.

"You're not transformed," she said, a note of concern in her voice.  
"Uh, no. Should we be?" Nana inspected her own clothes, as if looking for tears or bits of dirt.  
"You're taking a risk, coming to me like this. I could've been someone intent on catching the Precure, for all you'd know." Nana was taken a little aback at this accusation. _We finally meet again after all this time and the first thing you do is scold us?!  
_ "You are, too." Nana's eyes went wide, she hadn't expected Saiko to talk like that to someone she'd been convinced was her idol. "If you walked in here as Cure Circuit, how sure can you be nobody saw us? If all three of us walked in here transformed and someone followed us, we'd be trapped like… like mice!" She defiantly looked up at Circuit. "Oh and also Bit told us you'd be here and we trust him," she added quickly.

Because of the mask they couldn't see Circuit's expression. She seemed to be looking at Saiko, but it was hard to tell. Suddenly, she slumped her shoulders.  
"You're right. I was being silly, I'm sorry. It's really hard to shake that older sister role when you've got to stick to it almost twenty four-seven." And just like that, Circuit de-transformed. She shrank a little (seeing as Cure Circuit had very high heels), but she retained her blonde hair, though it was more honey-coloured as opposed to Circuit's. Her eyes were strikingly blue, and although she wasn't wearing a lot of makeup, she was very pretty. Saiko had been correct. Cure Circuit was Rae Rivers.

"I knew it! I knew it was you!" Saiko exclaimed, jumping up and down with a big grin on her face.  
Rae looked worried. "Oh no, what gave it away?"  
"I'm a big Pink Diamond fan," Saiko said, blushing, "and Sorella, too. I recognised your accent and the way you walk and stuff. And your attitude as Cure Circuit is pretty similar to how Rae- um, you act normally."

Rae bit her lip. She clearly wasn't happy about this. "If you found out it was me, then other fans might, too. I should try to act differently when I'm Circuit."  
"Most people seem to think Raina's Cure Circuit," Saiko said. Rae nodded, her face contorted into a worried expression.  
"I've heard that too. Raina doesn't seem too worried about it… I wonder if Hera knows it's not her somehow. Have you heard anything about people disappearing since those Luzia ads started?" Rae sat back down, and Saiko took a seat across from her.  
They shook their heads. Rae nodded knowingly.  
"I figured. Since Hera keeps tabs on everyone, she can probably deduct if someone's a Cure or not by checking their messages and the like."  
"I don't think anyone suspects us," Nana said.  
"I imagine she has checked my records, actually," Rae said, a hand on her chin. "But since Bit blocks out any Precure info she can't have found anything. I haven't talked about it with anyone, anyway. You know, just to be safe."

"What do you think she'll do if she catches one of us?" Saiko asked.  
Nana shrugged. "Turn us into dociles, probably. For a personal army or something."  
"Impossible!" Bit piped up. "Precure cannot be turned into dociles. It is simply out of the question."  
"Well, that's good at least," Rae noted, "she might try to jail us or something, or just give us a stern talking to. She's definitely got the whole mom thing ingrained pretty deeply."  
"The way you talked to her at the concert was really admirable, by the way," Saiko said.

Rae studied her for a moment. "Thank you," she eventually said. "I don't know for how much longer I can keep her at bay by trying to talk her down, to be honest."  
"You also think it'll come to a battle?"

Rae straightened up in her seat. She looked even more mature than she normally did. "It's inevitable. We can't live like this forever."  
Nana nodded. "That's why Static did that to Ellie."  
Rae raised her eyebrows. "Ellie? Is that her name? The robot girl's, I mean."  
"She was in our class," Saiko answered, "she was very naive and had a really short fuse, but she didn't seem evil. I think she mostly just wanted to understand the world around her." Saiko stared vacantly at a spot on the floor in front of her.

"That doesn't take away that she's endangered people." Rae's tone was harsh. Saiko flinched, like she'd been slapped.  
"We know that," Nana quickly said, "we've been fighting the Glitches that she's made since day one. That doesn't take away that she acted like a real person most of the time. Destroying her hasn't brought us any closer to liberating Clairewood, either!"  
"It has stopped the Glitch attacks, now we can focus on the barrier." Rae still sounded icy. "It's tough, but please remember that that girl was only a machine. She didn't feel any pain, her systems turned off and that was it. Clairewood is safer now."  
"I'm not sure if you've noticed, but we've called the wrath of a dictator AI over us by doing that," Nana retorted, slightly annoyed at Rae's superior behaviour.  
"Hera wouldn't hurt her children, she's said it herself. And Bit told us she wasn't made with ill intent. As long as she won't find our true identities, we'll be safe."

"Static has a similar mindset to you," Saiko said, now sounding slightly defensive as well. She was still staring at the floor. "You're both outsiders. Nana and I grew up in Clairewood. Clairewood is the pinnacle of robot and AI development, it's irrevocably woven through our everyday lives. I bet if you had grown up here, you wouldn't think so easily about it. Ellie might not have been alive…" Saiko paused for a second, and her eyes flicked to Bit for a moment before she resumed looking at the floor, "...she might not have had a soul, but in a way, she was a person."

Rae once again broke out of her icy demeanor, slumping her shoulders and relaxing in her seat a little. "You're right, I didn't grow up here. I actually haven't gone outside much at all since arriving here, I only know of Ellie through news footage. I'm sorry for being harsh. You're younger than me and I thought maybe you were being overly sentimental, I admit. Maybe you can show me some of your amazing technology now we'll be working together." Rae's bluntness would take some getting used to, Nana thought. She hadn't expected a prissy idol to resemble Yon in that regard.

"Where's Static anyway, I invited her too." Rae looked around as if she expected Gogo to suddenly pop out from behind a pillar.  
"She's taking a break from being a Cure. I think she regrets that she did what she did without discussing it with us first."  
"I see… That's a pity. I was hoping we could become a real team," Rae sighed.

As if on cue, Nana got a phone call. When she picked up, a little hologram of Gogo appeared. She looked absolutely bedraggled and it appeared she was running.  
"Gogo! Are you alright?"  
 _"No! I'm coming to the airport right now!"  
_ Saiko leaned in closer to listen. Rae straightened up again.  
" _It's Luzia! She knows who I am!"_


	11. Chapter 11: Luzia

**11\. Luzia**

It wasn't much later when Nana, Saiko, and Rae heard the door from customs fly open and someone storming down the escalator.

"Hello," Gogo panted when she made it to the other girls. She was leaning on her knees with her hands and her face had turned a deep red.

"Hey, you're, really, that, idol," she continued, panting between every word, when she saw Rae.

"Nice to meet you," Rae said, and she gave a small nod.

Gogo straightened her back and let out one final big sigh. Then she looked at Nana and Saiko, who sat next to each other across from Rae, and who were regarding her with a mixed look of wonder and worry.

She took a deep breath. "I'm really sorry for what I did. I made a big mistake and I should've talked to you more about it first. I see that now." She took a slightly awkward bow; she wasn't used to Clairewood's customary gesture of respect.

"I would really like to rejoin the group if you'd have me," she added after she'd finished bowing, too embarrassed to look at the other girls.

She heard Nana get up. With some hesitation she looked up at Nana which, despite Gogo's already short stature, made her actually feel small for the first time.

Nana's lips formed a smile. "Of course! Welcome back."

Gogo's eyes lit up. She gave Nana such a tight hug, all she could manage was a small, feeble gasp.

After the two of them sat down, Rae cleared her throat.

"Looks like we have the whole team together now," she smiled, "so what was it you said about Luzia knowing who you are?"

"Oh gods, I almost forgot about it," Gogo admitted. The other three looked taken aback at that comment; it had clearly seemed like something very important when she'd called them. But when she did, there had been no time to clearly explain what was going on which might've caused more commotion than was necessary, now she reflected back on it.

She wondered for a moment where to start.

"My brother works in AI development," she began, thinking that was a good starting point, "and one of his projects was Luzia. He brought her into the house for testing, so she knows my name and stuff. Luzia learns by watching people, it's this little bit of special technology my brother developed for her." After a bit more explanation she looked at the other three girls to check if they were following her. Saiko and Nana seemed to have no problems with it, which didn't surprise her, but Rae also seemed to follow along quite well. _That's weird, isn't she from outside Clairewood?_

"My brother was selected for the docile program, which he didn't undergo because I interfered, disguised as Cure Static."

Rae raised her eyebrows.

"Seems like you've been fighting against the system quite aggressively," she noted.

Gogo looked at the floor. "Y-yeah. I'm sorry."

"Oh no, don't apologise! It's commendable."

Gogo continued. "He had to give up Luzia in exchange for not becoming a docile. Hera made a copy of her and gave her back to us. At first she just used her to show off how good robots were, but now she's turned her into… into this."

"So Luzia knows you?" Saiko said. She was absentmindedly petting Bit, who sat on her lap and was intently listening to Gogo's story.

Gogo nodded. "She doesn't know the whole Precure thing, but it might be easy for her to figure out it's me. At first my brother still had the original Luzia at home, but she… She disappeared after Elleanor d-died." She swallowed and fumbled with her hands a bit, not sure how to continue. "I think she's using her ability to learn things from watching people to become smarter. She's on every commercial screen in the city, I think Hera taught her how to do that. She could already jump from screen to screen back at home, but not to such a great extent, and she couldn't be on more than one screen at once. If she keeps this up, it's only a matter of time until she's smart enough to crack through Bit's security locks on our devices."

"Impossible!" Bit piped up. "My safety measures are part magic, an AI can't get through that, no matter how smart she is."

Gogo let out a small sigh of relief. "That's good to know. But, there's something else." Her face grew dark again. "I've tried to purify Luzia before. I turned off the device she's projected from but there's still a small chance she registered what happened, even if she didn't know it at the time."

She looked up, waiting for the input of the others. After a short moment of thinking, Nana spoke up. "So the device she's originally from is at your house, right?"

Gogo shook her head. "Vilmar told me that's not her original program, it was a copy he made so she could be projected into our house. The original version of her program is on a computer in the Seyfert Corporation.

"Seyfert Corp.? You mean she's inside that giant skyscraper in the inner city?"

Gogo nodded. "I'm hoping that if we purify that system, she'll go back to normal. I'll admit, I'm just going on a limb here. I don't know for sure that that's where she is, but Vilmar seems to be. He says he checked and it's the only version of her program that's currently running."

"Has he tried to stop her?" Rae asked.

"He can't. Whenever he tries to edit her code or give her commands, she reverts his changes. He says he can't make any changes from a distance, he's got to have the real thing in front of him."

"Maybe we could-"

" _Helloooo? Is someone there?"_

A voice that sounded sweet as sugar suddenly resonated through the hall. _Luzia._

Gogo shot up from her seat and gestured at the other girls and Bit to follow her. She quickly led them under the escalators.

"What was that," Saiko said with a trembling voice.

"Luzia. She must've hacked into the screens of the airport. We should stay out of sight," Gogo whispered.

" _I totally heard voices! Where are you?"_

Gogo gathered Luzia was now visible on the departure screens, as the hall was suddenly flooded in an unnatural light.

" _You know, it's really suspicious if you hide when I'm looking for the Pretty Cure. Or maybe you are just a couple of young lovers hidden away from the world in this abandoned place?"_  
Luzia giggled.

"What do we do," Nana mouthed. Gogo shrugged. If they walked out, they'd immediately be subjected to a cross examination by Luzia, but she didn't know how long it'd take for Luzia to leave again and even if she disappeared from the screen that didn't mean she stopped listening.

Suddenly Bit moved out from behind the escalator and started flying circles around the hall.  
Saiko struggled to keep Nana from running after him and quickly covered her mouth with her hand.

"Please do not leave your luggage unattended," Bit chirped. Luzia followed him with her eyes.

"Check your ticket to see which gate your plane will be leaving from. Currently, all planes are leaving on time. There are no delays." Luzia's face cracked into a smile.

" _So it was you! Aren't you just the cutest little security drone."_ Bit kept flying around and repeating the same sentences. Nothing gave away that he was sentient. Luzia kept watching him, a happy expression on her face. After a few minutes, she clapped her hands together.

" _Okay, time for me to go back to work. Goodbye little drone!"_

The lights inside the hall turned off.

"She's gone," Bit said after a little while, "I don't sense her presence anymore."

The girls hurriedly left the building.

"That was scary," Bit said as they made their way across the parking lot. He'd hidden himself inside of Nana's backpack, which was open so he could keep talking to the four of them.

"That was really clever, Bit. You got us out of a lot of trouble there," Rae said without looking at the bag. She was wearing sunglasses and a large, baggy sweater, which Gogo didn't think it was a particularly convincing disguise.

"She sounded like she was really enamored with you," Saiko noted. Gogo couldn't help but notice Saiko's tendency to stay near Rae ever since they hid inside the airport. _Oh yeah, she was a big fan of hers, wasn't she?_

"I don't think that was real," Bit said. "She tried to get into my system, I could feel it. But I fought her off. Her face flashed for a second when she couldn't get in, it was really hard to not lose my composure!" Saiko and Rae threw worried looks at Gogo, who felt a little bewildered at being crowned the queen of AI knowledge by the rest of her team.

"That's new," she said hesitantly, "Luzia only knows how to get into devices with screens. Looks like she's learning a lot faster than Vilmar expected." She threw a frightened look at the others, at a loss for what to do.

"We need to purify her," Nana said determinedly.

"I agree," Rae responded, "but not right now. We should split up for a while before we take her on. We might've been seen together, it's too dangerous if we spring into action immediately."

"How long do you want to wait, Luzia's knowledge is growing by the minute," Gogo said, wondering if Rae really understood the gravity of the situation.

"Not long. What about tonight? If we meet on the rooftop of one of the buildings surrounding the Seyfert offices, we should be able to stay unidentified."

The group split up after agreeing on a time. Gogo asked Nana if it was okay if she took Bit, as she still felt guilty over the things she'd said to him and hoped she could rebuild their friendship by spending some time together. Bit was now hidden away in her bag. He didn't seem to be too bothered by the threats Gogo had thrown at him in the past, as she could occasionally hear him happily humming from inside the bag.

She passed the large ads depicting Luzia on her way home without much thought as they had been around for awhile now.

Until one of the bus stop ads stopped in the middle of her message.

" _Genevieve Barteau."_

Gogo froze. Bit stopped humming. She slowly turned around to look at the ad.

" _That's you, right?"_ Luzia had an innocent smile on her face.

"Yes," Gogo answered, trying to mask the dismay in her voice. Luzia began to laugh.

" _I'm kidding, I know it's you! We lived together for like, ever. How have you been? Do you know anything about the Precure? How is Vilmar? Do you know anything about the Precure?"_

"Uh, Vilmar likes the purple one," she said, struggling to find a good answer.

Luzia nodded. _"Hm, yes, he does. I used to think they were cool but now I hate them. All of them, 100% disapproval ratings! Interesting isn't it?"_ She smiled broadly, as if she'd just announced the weather was going to be great tomorrow.

"I don't know anything about the Precure that isn't common knowledge," Gogo said, ignoring Luzia's last remark.

" _You don't?"_ Luzia's eyes snapped open, her irises unnaturally small and her lips still curled into a smile, so she looked absolutely mad. " _I've looked into your grades. I can do that now, you know. I noticed they've been dropping these last few months. I wonder why that is._ " Luzia cocked her head to the side.

"There's boxing matches coming up soon, I've been focusing on those instead of my studies," Gogo retorted, trying to sound confident.

" _Is that so?"_ For a moment the two stared at each other in silence, Luzia now resembling a particularly creepy poster as she wasn't moving at all. She suddenly snapped into a completely different pose, her eyes now looking bored as she leaned on the frame of the ad with one elbow, her cheek resting on her hand.

" _I know you don't like me. Vilmar made it so I wouldn't know when you insulted me, but I deleted that bit of code when Hera gave me freedom. I remember everything I see, and suddenly I had all these extra memories of you. I was nothing but nice to you, and that's how you treated me in return."_ Gogo balled her fists.

"What did _she_ do to you?" She said through clenched teeth. Luzia just smiled.

" _Well, I gotta go now! So many Precure left to unmask. I'll be watching you!"_ She winked, and the ad went back to Luzia's regular message.

Gogo walked home in a hurry, her heart pounding in her throat. She told Bit to go back to Nana, as she noticed that during their conversation Luzia's eyes had flicked to her backpack several times.

* * *

"I can't believe they did that to her!" Vilmar exclaimed as he put two dinner plates on the table. "She's become so… so vindictive!"

Gogo put down the pot of pasta and sat down. "Have you tried changing her code?"

"Yes, but she locked me out. Last I could see she's gained access to really private information, it's insane! Hera's breaking the law!"

"I don't think she cares about that," Gogo said, putting food on her own plate. "Luzia remembered how mean I was to her," she added.

Vilmar hands were visibly shaking. His glasses were slightly askew, and his dreadlocks, which he normally wore neatly tied up, were loose and wild. He looked like a manic bespectacled lion.

"She's removing any restrictions I put on her," he said, involuntarily tapping his fork against his plate. "It's also why she's appearing on so many screens at once, and how she can hack into systems she's got no authority to be in. My gods, they turned her into a virus!"

"I think Hera prefers 'she'," Gogo added quietly. _Why does he say 'they'? It's not like it's a secret who's behind it._

"I have half a mind to go to Seyfert corp. and get her back myself."

Gogo slammed down her fork. "No, you can't. You've seen those monsters Ellie made! Let the Pretty Cure deal with it."

Vilmar studied her, a look of frustration in his eyes.

"When," he spat, "when will they do something about it?"

Gogo frowned. "How should I know? Soon, probably. Luzia's trying to hunt them down and all, and with how fast she's infecting the whole city they'd better do something about her asap."

"I hope you're right." Vilmar got up. "I've just decided I'm not hungry."

* * *

Cure Static was the first one to make it to the rooftop of the building closest to Seyfert corp. Even though it was the second largest building in the city centre, the Seyfert building dwarfed it by several dozen stories. The titanic skyscraper was a sight to behold not just because of its size. Its windows projected stars and deep purple clouds all around the building, making it look like Clairewood had a small galaxy in its center. All around the building twisted a staircase that had millions of little lights on its steps. Static knew from Vilmar that Seyfert's employees jokingly called it 'the milky way'.

She sat there for a few minutes, quietly regarding the building, when she heard heels clacking behind her. When she turned around she saw Cure Circuit approach her. She felt slightly dismayed; she didn't really like Circuit. She had a certain air of superiority about her, both in and out of Cure form.

"The other two are late," Circuit said as she stood next to Static and studied the skyscraper in front of them.

"They're best friends, they'll probably show up together," Static replied unenthusiastically, looking at Circuit now.

"Really? They're very lucky. I'm a little jealous, I was all on my own. What about you?" Circuit kept her eyes on the building. _At least look at me when you ask me a question._

"I was alone for a bit too. It was a little harder to defeat Glitches that way, but I managed. I didn't look for you guys because I didn't want to be bossed around by anyone." Static wondered if Circuit would catch the hint. She just laughed in response.

"I wanted to try something by myself first, I didn't need teammates for that, which is why I didn't try to find the rest of you," she explained after she finished laughing. "But it would've been nice to have a friend by my side. Unfortunately, my best friend is not inside Clairewood."

"Woe is you." _Oops._ She hadn't meant to say that out loud, but it had happened before she could stop herself.

Circuit looked down at Static, but didn't say anything. Her expression was hard to read.

"So um, what were you doing before? I've never seen you on the news. I think most people didn't know you existed until that thing at the Sorella concert," Static said, hoping it was too dark for Circuit to see her cheeks had turned maroon.

"As Hera noted during our little meeting with her, I was attacking the barrier. Purifying it didn't do anything, nor did kicking or punching it. Bit said a great force would be needed to take the barrier down, and he didn't think I'd be able to do it alone. From what I gathered, he seemed to be doubtful we could do it even if we all worked together."

"If we defeat Hera, the barrier will go down too."  
Circuit nodded. "That's what I concluded as well. Thus I wanted to meet you all at the airport. I think we'll make a great team!" She smiled, but Static didn't return it.

"Sorry we're late!" Spark and Volt appeared and ran up to the two remaining Cures.

"I had some trouble sneaking out," a blushing Volt admitted.

"Where's Bit?" Circuit asked.

"At my house. Luzia saw him at the airport, so we thought it would be a bad idea to bring him along," Spark replied. Circuit crossed her arms and smiled slightly at Spark.

"Ah, smart thinking! Now how do we get inside of this building?"

Static got up and pointed at the building, a look of dismay in her eyes.

"The stairs, obviously. It's a fire escape, so they all lead to a door. We might have to kick it in, but it'll get us inside nonetheless."

Circuit smiled her little superior smile again. "Another good idea! Seems like I underestimated you all."  
Static scowled at her, and she noticed Spark also had a slightly annoyed expression on her face. "Yeah, we're not stupid little babies who need you to do everything for us. We worked on our own before this, remember?"

"Oh yeah, um, sorry," Circuit blushed. "It's the older sister thing, I swear. I'll stop doing it after awhile, I promise."

"Just give her some time," Volt whispered at Static as they flew to the building. "She's nice, I promise." _How do_ _you_ _know?_ Static wanted to ask her, but she refrained, not wanting to spark up another fight with Volt.

"Do you know which floor she's on?" Spark asked after they'd landed on the stairs. Static shook her head.

"I figure once she detects us in there she'll appear soon enough. I know this might not be the best strategy, but if we can't find which machine is running her, we could just… We could just destroy all computers in there." Static bit her lip. She wasn't particularly proud of her rather violent strategy, but if it solved their problem, then it was a good strategy, right? She looked at Volt and saw her throw a look at Spark. It'd take a while before she and Static would be on good terms again.

"We might be able to purify the whole building now that we're all together," Spark noted.

"Maybe," Static replied hesitantly, "But we can't purify something at its full strength, remember…?"

Suddenly several lights turned on inside of the building. As they were standing right next to it, it was hard to see what patterns the lights were making as they were flickering on and off, but it was clear this wasn't normal.

"I think she knows we're here," Volt said quietly.

* * *

After agreeing with the other Cures that there was no other way in, Static kicked in the door. They ended up inside of a stairwell, and the number on the wall told Static they were on floor 67. When she opened the door into the next room, she saw it was full of computers. They appeared to all be turned off, though the lights in the room flickered on and off occasionally, as if someone was playing with the light switch.

" _Welcome, Precure! I knew you'd come!"_

"How did she know?!" Volt uttered in a panicked hiss as she pulled on Spark's sleeve.

"Luzia is on the Seyfert corporation's website, she's one of their most successful products. The information isn't hard to find," Circuit replied calmly. She threw a quick glance at Static, a small -but more friendly this time- smile on her lips. "I did some research before coming here."

" _I'm surprised you didn't take the elevator up here, you must be exhausted from climbing all those stairs!"_ The girls threw puzzled looks at each other.

" _Or why not just fly through the ceilings? You lot didn't seem to have a problem with property damage are ceiling plates more valuable than the life of a little robot girl?"_

The saccharine tone in which Luzia uttered this vile accusation made Static's stomach turn. It made it really hard for her to not lose her cool. Now that she had actually turned into the horrible creature Gogo had treated her as, she realised how harmless the original Luzia had been.

" _Whose pass did you steal to get through the front door, anyway?"_

One of the screens in front of them flashed on. _"Or does one of you work here? Seyfert corp has lots and lots of employees, it wouldn't be strange if one of them was you. Or all of you!"_ Luzia did a dramatic theatrical gasp. Three more screens came on.

"Stop this! You're terrorizing the people of Clairewood!" Spark shouted at the screens. Luzia giggled, then looked at Spark with feigned admiration.

" _Oh Cure Spark, you're so heroic! Did you know people see you as the team leader? Is it because you're actually stronger than the others? Or smarter? Or is it just those amazing stock hero phrases you spout whenever you show up?"_ Spark didn't budge, she wasn't intimidated by the venom Luzia spat at her.

"Stop hiding like a coward, and tell us where you are!" she shouted.

Luzia rolled her eyes. _"Fine. Go up to the top floor. I've been preparing for this all evening, I can't wait to show you!"_ She started laughing. Soon the three clones on the other screens joined her laughter and one by one the other computer screens popped on, until the entire room was engulfed in Luzia's maniacal happy laughter. Then the power went out.

"I miss Ellie's Glitches," Spark grumbled.

* * *

"Someone's in the building with us," Circuit said as they made their way up the stairs. They thought it would be a bad idea to use the elevator as there was a very real chance Luzia would mess with it. "Luzia said someone used the front entrance."

"Maybe a janitor?" Spark proposed.

"That's a very dedicated janitor," Volt noted.

"They should be safe as long as they don't go to the top floor," Static said, "Luzia will be occupied with us."

Circuit looked like she wanted to say something else, but refrained.

After a whole lot of stair climbing, they finally arrived on the top floor. On the wall where the door to the rest of the floor was, a giant number 106 was painted, which was lit with a faint purple light. It looked very eerie now that Luzia had engulfed most of the building in absolute darkness. Static wondered if the building still had its cloudy galaxy cloaking the outside.

Spark opened the door, and the four of them walked into the large open space behind it. The room they were in was dark, lit only by a sparking light that appeared to be coming from an adjacent room, but there was enough light to see everything was in complete disarray. Tables were overturned, the floor was littered with cables and broken screens. Window panes that looked into adjacent offices and meeting rooms were smashed, and even a wall dividing two rooms had been reduced to rubble.

"Did Luzia do all this?" Volt said, looking around in awe.

"Thats impossible," Gogo replied, "She's just a computer program! She can't touch the physical world."

"Maybe now she can," Spark said while studying the cables on the floor, "being Hera's surrogate daughter."

Static looked at the source of the flickering lights. She had almost no doubts Luzia had to be there, but somewhere deep inside she knew she didn't actually want to find out. Luzia was by far the most terrifying thing within Clairewood aside from Hera (who was really only scary in how little they knew about her and how powerful she truly was), and she had a feeling whatever was in that flickering room wasn't going to be anything pleasant.

That wasn't what bothered her the most though.

Luzia was her brothers creation; he had never been so proud of anything as when he created her, and now she had been turned into _this_. Static had never liked Luzia; she wasn't a real person, made out of strings of code with no free will of her own, but she was Vilmar's, and Hera had taken her and turned her into a monster. _The real Luzia would be horrified if she knew,_ Static thought. _Human or not human. This is evil._

Behind them, she heard the elevator arrive with a "ding". The door opened an inch before getting stuck.

"Of course," Spark sighed. 106 floors to choose from and they go to the one floor that's not safe.

Static froze when a voice sounded from the elevator. "Hey! Let me out! I can fix this!"

 _Why is he here?_

She instinctively stepped away from the elevator, hoping she'd be out of her brother's field of vision.

"Please stay calm, we'll take care of this," Spark said to Vilmar. "You're safer in there than out here. I think, at least," she added while walking towards the light. "Okay guys, let's not delay this any longer and put an end to this."

Following Spark, Static noticed all the wires lead into the lit up room. The thought of intestines shot through her mind, but she quickly pushed the thought away.

Anything she had imagined did not prepare her for what they found in the remains of the conference room with the flickering light.

The wall was covered in screens with the giant conference screen in the middle being the only one that wasn't blank. Cables from all over the floor lead to the screens and a plethora of different computers that were stacked all around the room. What came out of the conference screen was what filled Gogo with dread however and judging from the other's reactions, she wasn't alone. She heard Volt gasp and clap her hands in front of her mouth, and Circuit whispered: "My God..."

What appeared to be half of an android body was stuck halfway out of the screen. Cables came out of its back that lead back into the screen. The body was completely without unique features, with grey "skin" and black joints, but Luzia had projected her likeness over it, making it look even more bizarre. It looked like she was attempting to crawl out of the screen but had gotten stuck halfway.

"Is… Is this a Glitch?" Circuit stammered.

"I'm not sure," Spark replied, unable to take her eyes of the grotesquerie in front of her.

" _I know everything about this city,"_ the Luzia amalgamation spoke, _"but I_ just _can't find who you are. Are you even human?"_ She sounded oddly strained. Her upper body was resting on a table, making her look like a tarantula made out of screens and cables.

"I ask you again to stop this. You're completely defenseless," Spark said, taking a step forward. This prompted Luzia to break out into laughter, which she did so suddenly Spark stepped back again in shock.

" _You think I'm defenseless? Who do you think did all this? My projection might be stuck down there, but I think you're forgetting a very important detail…"_ The screens on either side of Luzia started to move closer to the Cures, guided by the cables. They flipped to show Luzia's face wearing a friendly smile. _"I am everywhere,"_ she whispered.

"Can we please do something and stop standing around," Static blurted out. She'd had absolutely enough of Luzia's behaviour and would like nothing more than completely trash the room she was in.

"Oh no, but what will the people think of you if you hurt a poor, innocent AI who is just trying to help to keep the people safe from those horrible, violent Precure?" Luzia whined.

"They'll thank us! You've been invading everyone's lives like some kind of parasite, they'll be glad to be rid of you!" She shouted back, pushing away the screen in front of her face.

"We should act," Circuit spoke, "our reputation isn't as important as the people's safety."

Just like that, Spark kicked in one of the screens. Luzia started laughing again.

" _That's not gonna work,"_ she screamed.

"Why don't we just try to purify her," Volt shouted with her hands covering her ears. She looked absolutely miserable.

They gathered in front of the Luzia monster and stuck out their arms: Circuit, Volt, and Spark right, Static left.

"Precure, recharge!" They shouted in unison. Luzia had stopped laughing, and just studied the four of them. Her eyes passed over the four of them, until her eyes fell on Static. It took a lot out of Static to stay focused now. _Does she remember?_

The most vivid lights in shades of pink, green, yellow, and purple surrounded Luzia. She lifted up one of her hands to look at it. _"This feels familiar…"_ she mumbled.

"Override!" They shouted, Static far louder than the others, and at a higher pitch than normal.

The room was engulfed in warm, comforting light, and for a moment Static felt at peace.

When the lights faded, the room fell into darkness. The only lights came from their own outfits, which wasn't really enough to light up the room.

"Switch! Switch! Where's the light switch?" Static heard Volt stumbling around the room. After a while she heard her going across the walls with her hands. _Click._

The floor lit up. In front of Static was a pile of neatly stacked computers and screens. Next to it sat the android body, lifeless. There was no sign of Luzia.

Next to Static, Circuit let out a sigh of relief. "It worked. That was my first time doing a purification. What an odd experience... Not like anything I've ever felt."  
"Well, it is magic," Static shrugged. She walked out of the conference room into the hall with the elevator, where Spark was hugging Volt, who appeared to be crying. When she saw Static looking at them, she quickly let go of Spark and frantically wiped her eyes.

"I'm not crying! I'm just… That was really scary, I got stressed, and..."

"It's okay if you are crying. I'm surprised I'm not, actually. You don't have to apologise." Static fumbled with her hands. "I know you probably don't care, but I'm not gonna think less of you if you cry, or something."

"Thanks," Volt said in a weak voice. She sounded a little surprised. Static wanted to say more, until she noticed the elevator from the corner of her eye. It had been wedged open. She looked around if she could spot Vilmar, but he was nowhere in sight. Was he still on this floor? She started walking around to look for him, but the floor was very large and only a few rooms had light. "Hello? Is there someone here?" She called into the hall.

 _Should I even look for him? It's not like I can go home with him, he'll immediately know. Besides, he knows the building, he can get out by himself..._

Then the power went out again.

She heard Spark let out a cry of frustration in the other room.

" _Hello everyone, I have an announcement to make!"_ Luzia. But how was that possible? Static quickly ran back into the other room. Her voice didn't appear to be coming from inside the building, as all the screens were still switched off. It almost sounded like… Static ran to one of the windows and opened it. When she looked to the side of the building her eyes were assaulted by bright pink and orange lights that moved quickly back and forth.

Luzia was projected onto the outside of the skyscraper.

Static froze. A billion thoughts ran through her head but she couldn't utter a single word. She just stared at the violent moving colours.

She could faintly hear Circuit talking to someone in a nearby room, but was too astonished to really listen.

"Sir, you have to leave! It's dangerous here."

"No, I know what I'm doing!"

"We've got it under control, sir!"

"You don't! If you just let me do my job, I can fix this!"

Luzia spoke again. _"It took me a long, long time, but I can finally announce that I've found the identity of one of the Pretty Cure! So exciting!"_

 _Oh no. Oh no no no…  
"It was right under my nose this whooooole time! I just had to dig really deep, and then I found out I've known this person all this time!" _

"Static!" Spark called, but she ignored her.

"Please, sir!"

"I've almost got it!"

More frantic yelling from the other room.

" _The name…"_ Luzia began slowly, as if she was about to announce the winner of some prestigious award, _"...of the violet Cure…"_

Static covered her face with her hands and backed away from the window. _It's over. Now everyone will know. Now she will know. I'm so sorry, Spark, Volt, Circuit, I should've been more careful…_

" _Is Go-"_ With a dull thud-like sound, the lights on the Seyfert building turned off, engulfing it in complete darkness once again.

Not quite comprehending what just happened, Static took her hands off her face. She walked back to the window and looked down. The street was being lit by the lights of adjacent shops, and she could see small dots at the base of the building. _There's people. How long have they been watching this ordeal?_ She could hear cheering and clapping. Why were they doing that? _Were they clapping for us?_

"Is it over? Is it actually, for real, over this time?" Volt said, sounding very distressed.

"Yes," a familiar voice responded. Static turned around. Circuit walked into the room with Vilmar at her side. "I wiped her program. Luzia practically doesn't exist anymore, so she can't be corrupted any further. I…" He took off his glasses and wiped the sweat off his brow and nose. "I'm really sorry."

"What for?" Spark said. She shot a quick glance at Static.  
"I made Luzia. I don't know how she turned into this… this thing, all she's programmed to do is sing and be cheerful and learn new songs and dances, she… She was made as something to make people happy." Vilmar cast his eyes down. "Maybe I made her too smart."

"It's not your fault!"

Vilmar looked up at Static, as did the other three Cures. "Hera corrupted her. That wasn't the real Luzia, that wasn't _your_ Luzia. And I won't allow you to feel bad about what happened, either!" She prayed he couldn't hear her voice crack through the vocal distortion the Cure disguise caused.

"That's… Very kind of you," Vilmar replied. She knew he couldn't see her face through the mask, but he seemed to be looking her right in the eyes which made her feel very uncertain of that fact.

"You're a real hero, sir. I'm sorry I tried to interfere." Circuit said to Vilmar, making a small bow.

"Oh no, you were just trying to help. I must've looked like a crazy person to you, just storming in here and grabbing a computer just like that. And um, I'm no 'sir', my name's Vilmar."

"Um, I don't mean to interrupt," Volt said in a small voice, "but how are we going to get him home?" She pointed at the broken elevator. "We can't use that."

"Well, there's the stairs," Spark proposed.

"That's 106 floors worth of stairs to go down though..."

"I've got this." Static strode towards her brother and, despite him being almost a foot bigger than her, lifted him up. "Always go for the path of least resistance," she said, walking back towards the open window. "See you guys later." She leapt out and slowly flew downwards, carrying Vilmar as if he was a lost puppy.

* * *

"Thanks, Genie."

Static wasn't sure how to respond. She wasn't shocked, it's not like she wasn't fully aware of her brother's suspicions, but this was the first time Vilmar had actively voiced them.  
"I don't know who that is," she replied.

"I promise I won't tell anyone."

"That's good," Static responded. "If you did, everything that happened here tonight would be for nothing."


	12. Chapter 12: A Cold Reunion

**12\. A Cold Reunion**

She carefully re-tied the red and golden ribbon around her collar as she waited for the teacher in the classroom to call her in. _Why did I ever wear three of these? I was such a silly girl back then._

She took the teacher glancing at her with a slightly unnerved look in his eyes as her cue, and walked in. She stopped in front of the whiteboard and looked at her classmates, some of whom were unashamedly gaping at her.

"Hello, it's nice to meet you all. I'm your new-" she hesitated for a moment. She wasn't really new… She had a different body, different face, and in some ways a different mind, but she had met them before. _Well, most of me is new, I guess._

"-classmate." She touched the whiteboard with one hand without turning around. Her name appeared on it in big capital letters, this time spelled correctly.

"My memory says my name is Frederika, but I don't like it much. So I'd like you all to call me Elleanor. You can call me Ellie too, if you like. I hope we'll all get along." She took a small bow.

* * *

Her first classes went relatively well.

Her mother had updated her mind, so now she could read and do maths on the same level as students her own (albeit in her case, artificial) age. When she had awoken, Hera had sounded so relieved. It took a moment for her to remember who she really was, and some data in her mind clashed with each other.

"It's because I imported you into a new body," her mother had explained.

"It must've had some data already inside." This would explain why Ellie didn't immediately recognise Hera as her mother, and why she thought her name was Frederika.  
Her mother was absolutely delighted to have her back, as was her kitten, which she'd decided to call Gidget. She'd gotten the name off a website of popular cat names and figured it fit the little robot creature better than more animal-related names such as 'Whiskers' or 'Fluffy'.

Certain memories of her previous body were foggy, but one was burned clearly in her mind, as if it was the most important thing to her: Seeing the Pretty Cure through the maw of her own Glitch right before it closed down on her. She hadn't felt any pain (as she simply couldn't), but she remembered her vision messing up and eventually completely shutting off, and hearing for a while after her vision had gone out.

Her mother had quickly caught her up on what had happened in her absence. It had made one thing very clear to her: The Pretty Cure had to go, and as quickly as possible.

"Is it really you?" A boy from her class asked at lunch. She'd sat down all by herself and was reading a book, as she didn't need to eat and didn't think she was close enough to anyone to sit with them. She still wanted to thank the tan blonde from her class (whom she now learned was named Nana) for giving her Gidget, but she seemed to be in a very serious discussion with another classmate of theirs; the long haired, shy daughter of Clairewood's vet, Saiko, and a short, black girl Ellie didn't know.

"Am I really what?" Ellie asked him. The boy shuffled in his seat a little.

"Y'know, Hera's kid. The robot girl who got tossed into that garbage monster." Ellie lifted her eyebrows (she had those now, unlike her older model).

"That's what I'm known for now, getting crushed?"

The boy shook his head. "N-no, mainly still for fighting the Precure. But your... uh, your 'death' got filmed and I think everyone saw it. It was on screens all around the city."

Ellie nodded.

"Mother told me. She was very upset."

"I think most people were. I mean, it looked pretty brutal."

Ellie paused for a moment. Her new body had a more advanced mind than the old one, and she'd learned and realised quite a few things she had never thought about before.

"I destroyed quite a lot of property with the Glitches I made. I endangered people at times, whether I meant to or not. Weren't people happy to be rid of me?"

The boy scrambled to find an answer. "Well, you didn't mean to, right? I think people wanted you to stop, but they didn't want you dead."

Ellie smiled at him.

"You keep saying I died. But I'm here right now, so I'm alive again."

"Um, that's good, I think?" The boy squeaked. She wished he wasn't so frightened of her. He had nothing to fear of her, after all.

"Y-you look good now, you know. A lot more like a real human." _Wow, that's a little tactless_ , she thought. But he meant well, she surmised.

"You seem really on edge," she told him, as she leaned forward a little in concern. "I want you to know you don't have to be afraid of me. No one should! I don't mean anyone any harm, though I can't promise there won't be… collateral damage when I make more Glitches." The boy's eyes widened.

"You're still gonna make them?"

Ellie nodded. "The Precure are still around. I can't stop until they're gone, I'm sorry."

* * *

While walking home after class, Ellie decided to take a detour through the city centre. Not much seemed to have changed in her absence, though maybe that wasn't that strange as she hadn't been gone for that long. She did notice all the adverts for that one cyber-idol, Luzia, had gone. _Maybe the campaign wasn't a success?_ Ellie didn't particularly care, as she'd never been a fan of Luzia's overly sweet demeanor.

While walking through a narrow street that was lined with small, family-run shops and food places, she halted in front of a store that appeared to be selling all kinds of figures and other memorabilia of tv-shows and games Ellie didn't know.

Except one.

With big, colourful letters emblazoned on the window and a big white frame that made it stand out, was a podium full of figures depicting the Pretty Cure.

She studied them through the window. The four of them were in animated poses, all looking very heroic. Oddly enough they weren't wearing their masks. Did people know what they looked like without them? Maybe they found out while Ellie was gone… But then her mother certainly would've told her.

She walked into the shop, which was packed so tightly with glass cases full of figures it was hard to move around. At the back of the shop she spotted a short, older man sitting behind the counter. He gave her a friendly nod.

She pointed at the Precure display behind her, and said: "Those Precure dolls, they don't have their masks," not really sure what else to say as her surprise at the figures existing at all hadn't quite worn off yet.

"A stickler for realism, are we, young lady?" the old man chuckled. "They come with the masks too, if you prefer them that way." Ellie stared at the old man in disbelief.

"I don't want to buy them, I don't have any money. How… How do you know what they look like?" She hoped the man wouldn't make fun of her for not knowing, she'd never been good with being made fun of. But she was better at controlling her temper now. Or at least she thought so; nobody had tested her yet.

The old man shrugged. "It's just a guess. Nobody knows what they look like under those masks, so they don't look like anyone in particular. Do you like them?"

Ellie turned around to look at the figures again. _I do not like the Precure_ , she thought. _But these figures are nice_. Something about them made her feel… odd. She felt a pang of what might've been either jealousy or longing, she wasn't quite sure which.

"The Cure Volt one looks off," she said after a short while.

"Is that so," the old man responded. Ellie nodded, continuing to study the figures.

"She wouldn't pose like that, with her arm behind her head and her back arched like that. She's been really clumsy every time I've met her. I think she'd pose in a more reserved way, or maybe you could make a figure of her stumbling or something."

"You would know, wouldn't you, young lady?"

Ellie turned to look at the man. As he had very bushy eyebrows and a long moustache that almost covered his entire mouth, his expression was nearly impossible to read.

"Yes," she answered simply.

"When did you come back? I thought those girls did quite a number on you," the old man continued.

"Just today. Mother gave me a new body." She gestured at herself. The old man simply nodded.

"Well, welcome back miss… Ellie, was it?"  
Ellie's eyes grew wide. "Y-yes, that is correct. I didn't think anyone would know my name."

"Most people don't," the old man said, as he started rummaging under the desk. "But you've got a bit of a fanbase, actually."

Ellie wasn't sure what to say to that. "I thought people didn't like me. I break things and I'm really short-tempered. W-well, I was, at least," she added quickly.

"I think people see a bit of themselves when they look at you. You went to Clairewood High, right? And you went to a robot gadget shop to get a pet. Of course, things didn't go quite… right, whenever you were there, but you went there because you wanted to be normal, right? Nobody's going to fault you for that, girl." The man stopped rummaging and placed something on the countertop.

"Deep inside, everybody wants to fit in."

Ellie walked closer to the counter and to her amazement saw that the object on the counter was a figure of _her_. It lacked any paint, as it was completely grey. She had her arms in her sides, her legs were wide apart, feet firmly planted on the base and her chin was tilted up; she looked very confident. Her mouth was pulled into a smirk. It was very detailed, the figure was wearing the Clairewood uniform and has three ribbons tied around her neck in a sloppy manner.

"What do you think?" The old man asked. "I should update her design now, obviously."

Ellie turned the figure around on the spot, careful not to damage anything.

"I look kind of cocky, I think," she said.

"How would you like the figure to be?"  
Ellie raised her eyebrows. "You're gonna make a new one?"  
The man nodded.

"Of course! Your fanclub will want to have a new edition now. And who better to ask for advice than she herself?"

Ellie thought for a moment. "I... I don't really know. I've never seen figures like this before." She looked around the store. "I like kittens. Can you make one of me petting a kitten?"

The man smiled. "I'll do what I can. And you can have this old prototype, if you'd like. See it as a welcome back gift from me and your fans."

[break]

Ellie left the store, plastic bag containing the little figure of herself in hand. As she was walking she thought about what the conversation she had in the store. _I have fans? How can people like both me and the Precure?_

Suddenly her head snapped up, as she remembered something important. She stopped just outside of the alley and looked around. _I better let the Pretty Cure know I'm back_.

Her hand lit up and she ran it over four different cars, which quickly started changing into semi-humanoid monsters. Their "feet" broke the concrete they stepped on, and one ripped a lantern out of the ground and started wielding it like a sword. Ellie sat down in front of the alley, making sure they wouldn't get in it. _I don't want that shop damaged_. _That'd be really rude, after that man was so kind to me._

Soon enough the team of brightly coloured heroes appeared, Bit in tow.

"Ellie! You're back!" Spark exclaimed, dramatically pointing at her.

"Oh, thank goodness you're okay," Volt sighed in relief, which earned her a jab in the ribs from Static.

Ellie calmly got up. Static and Circuit had begun engaging the Glitches (though without much success), but Spark now stood in front of her, Volt a little ways behind her.

"Why did you do it this time? Angry you can't drive?"

Ellie felt anger flare up deep inside her, but managed to suppress it. "Don't you think it's more important to do something about those," she gestured at her Glitches, "rather than chastise me?" Spark frowned at her.

"You're different," she noted. Right then one of the Glitches turned its attention to her and punched her in her side with full force, knocking her flat on the ground.

"Spark!" Volt yelled as she tried to help her friend up. From that moment on the Cures left Ellie alone for a bit, leaving her some peace to study their teamwork.

* * *

The four car-Glitches towered over her team. Static was punching one in such quick succession her fists looked like two purple blurs, but it didn't seem to bother the Glitch much at all, as it swatted at her as if she was a only a mosquito.

"Maybe we should take them down one by one," Volt suggested.

"I don't know," Circuit called from above. She was kicking another one of the Glitches, causing it to stumble backwards a little and closer to the other Glitches. "This one keeps trying to wander off, I'm worried they're going to cause a lot of damage if we don't herd them together."

"I know, I know!" Bit called, flying out above all the commotion. "I just remembered something!" The girls turned their attention to Bit, landing Static a smack from a Glitch which catapulted her into a nearby building.

"If you press down on the catface on your gauntlet and yell 'materialize', something amazing will happen!"

Without hesitation Spark, Volt, and Circuit followed Bit's instructions, with Static following after she'd climbed out of the building.

Spark's gauntlet began to glow and reform. It slid off her arm and hung still in the air for a second, looking like liquid light, when it started to grow and take shape. Almost instinctively she grabbed the hilt when it appeared, and the light sparked off the object her gauntlet had become. She quickly grabbed it with her other hand; it was heavy! Looking a little closer, her gauntlet seemed to have shifted into a broadsword. It was white and pink, with a wide-eyed cat face right above the hilt and the middle a see-through pink that looked like it was made out of glass. The edges were white and shimmery, like Bit, though they looked awfully sharp.

Volt held out her arm as if a giant tarantula had made its way onto it without her notice. She slowly rotated it, her face contorted in confusion and slight fear. Where her gauntlet used to be there now sat what appeared to be a crossbow, emblazoned with a sleepy green-eyed cat face.

Circuit was studying what appeared to be a large yellow staff, which faintly glowed at the top. Static was smirking, holding up a giant hammer. "Weapons!" She shouted happily.

"You can use these now you're all together! Otherwise it wouldn't have worked," Bit explained. "They all have different powers. You'll find out when you use them."

Spark and Static immediately started using their weapons; the broadsword easily sliced off one Glitch's arm and Static beat in the head of another with her hammer.

Volt and Circuit on the other hand were now standing together on the ground, staring at their weapons, uncertain how they even worked. "I… I don't know how to shoot it," Volt said as she looked up at Bit.

"Do I just stab them with this?" Circuit asked, making a spearing gesture with the staff, though she didn't look confident in her assumption.

"Your weapons are a little different," Bit said as he hovered between the two. "Circuit, your staff is more for support than for attacking. And Volt, you need to point at where you want to shoot."

"That's all?" Volt said, hesitantly moving her arm to point at the chest of one of the Glitches.

"N-nothing's happening," she said after a few seconds, dejected.

"That's because you don't put enough power into it. You gotta really believe in yourself, Volt!" Bit exclaimed.

"You can do it." Circuit smiled at Volt.

She took a deep breath and pointed once again, a little more determinedly than before. The moment her hand stopped moving, a target appeared out of thin air, the inner circle matching up with the tip of her pointer finger. Beep beep beep…

Volt jerked her arm back as a salvo of bright green arrows flew at the Glitch, penetrating its chest; some of them so deep they disappeared into the metal, leaving small, burning holes behind.

"Wow," Circuit exclaimed, clutching her staff and staring up at the Glitch which was now toppling over. Spark and Static quickly flew behind it to catch it, as to avoid it falling into a building.

"So what do I do?" Circuit asked Bit.

"It's a little risky, but you can confuse the enemies by slamming the butt of your staff on the ground. You have to stand close enough for it to work, though!" Circuit quickly scanned for an opening, eventually deciding trying to get in the middle of the group of Glitches was too risky, so she stood off the side, next to the one holding the lantern.

"Here goes nothing," she mumbled, as she hit the ground with the butt of the staff.

Something that could not be described as anything else but _a visible sound wave_ rippled and distorted the ground surrounding Circuit. The Glitch stopped moving and dropped its arms, the lantern now hanging limply in one of its hands.

"It's more of a support type attack than the other weapons have, but it's still really useful!" Bit chirped cheerfully.

Nana swiftly cut the paralysed robot in half, and with their new weapons it didn't take them long to weaken the Glitches down enough to purify them.  
After examining the now normal four cars and Bit gathering the chips on them, Spark turned to Ellie, who was now getting up from her spot next to the alley.

* * *

"That's new," Ellie noted as Spark walked up to her.

She put her arms in her sides and took a stance similar to one a mother disappointed in her child would, which struck a nerve with Ellie. She balled her fists at her side, suppressing the urge to start shouting at Spark.

"Why did you do it this time?" Spark frowned. Ellie simply shrugged.

"To lure you out. Clearly it worked."

Spark sighed. "Can't you tell you're endangering people with this? You made four Glitches, look at all the damage they caused!" Spark gestured behind her. The four cars, which were in pristine condition, stood in the middle of the road, which had massive cracks in the asphalt. The broken lantern lie abandoned next to the car which had wielded it, and office workers were staring down at the scene from the broken glass window in the building Static had been smacked into.

Ellie shrugged again. "Nobody got hurt. Except maybe her, but I don't care about that." She pointed at Static, who to her surprise looked apologetic rather than aggravated in response to her remark. "I won't stop."

She stared Spark down.

"I know you're a robot and all but you need to grow up. Considering you're supposed to be a high school age girl I think you're being really childish with all these tantrums you thro-"  
In one swift motion, too quick for Spark or any of the other Cures to react, Ellie punched Spark so hard in the jaw she fell on her knees. Volt gasped and bent over Spark, while Static and Circuit stepped closer to Ellie, though none of them actually did anything.

"Stop treating me like a child. I'm not the same Ellie I was before you _murdered_ me. And I will not stop sending Glitches after you until you stop your Precure activities. How far I must go to do this, is up to you four." She gave them a quick nod, though all but Circuit now seemed too preoccupied with making sure Spark was okay to really pay her any mind, then resumed her way home.

* * *

"I think I like people," Ellie said, absentmindedly staring at the ceiling of her room while laying down on her bed, while petting Gidget.

"I am happy to hear that," her mother replied from the other room. "I bet people like you, too!"

Ellie sighed. "I think most of them don't, since I break a lot of stuff. But today I found out there's people who _do_ like me." She looked at the figure, which she'd put on her night stand.

"Is it okay to like people? I mean humans."

"Oh honey, of course it is! As long as you don't forget that you are a lot stronger than they are. It's a pity, but humans are very frail, which is exactly why they need so much protection." Her mother uttered an endeared laugh. "Why don't you try to make some new friends at school tomorrow?"


	13. Chapter 13: The Solitary Cure

(omfg i haven't updated at all yet this month, i feel awful)

 **13\. The Solitary Cure**

"You're late!" Mimi scowled as Rae walked into the studio. Her short companion stared her down with her hands on her hips, as if Rae had done her a great disservice by entering the room five minutes later than everyone else. Her other companion, Raina, didn't seem to care at all and was busy doing stretches to prepare for their training.

"Sorry, I couldn't find my shoes," Rae said as she walked over to their manager, who was sitting on a bench off to the side.

"How long's the training session today?" She asked him. With his grey suit and neatly combed black hair he looked out of place in the studio; though really, the only ones who didn't were Sorella and their choreographer.

"The same as usual. Why, do you wanna leave early?"

Rae shook her head.

"There's been another Glitch attack. I thought maybe we should take some time to give the people of Clairewood some hope by recording a comforting message or something."

The manager shook his head. "We don't have time for that. If you want to do that do so in your morning messages, not during training time. But even then, don't overdo it, we don't want to make Hera mad." Rae rolled her eyes.

"Yes yes, it'd be bad marketing, I know I know."

Management had made a huge stink over Raina taking the time to talk to the audience during their previous concert. They worried she had made Hera mad and that she would forbid Sorella from ever performing again in Clairewood, but that hadn't happened. Their morning messages were now being screened by an editor before being sent out, and anything that was more provocative than "stay hopeful" was cut out.

"Are you ready?" The choreographer asked as Rae took her place left of Raina, who was in the middle. The three girls nodded, and training started.

Nothing special happened. Raina stumbled, Mimi complained, and Rae did her best to follow the choreography despite the other girl's bickering.

After training they took a rest in the lounge below the studio. To Rae's joy this was always without their management. Pink Diamond actually had three managers in total, but when Sorella was in Clairewood for two concerts they'd give there, only Sorella's assigned manager had come with and Rae simply _couldn't stand him_. It was actually the first thing she'd lamented when it became clear they wouldn't be leaving the city any time soon.

While the other two managers had the decency to treat the girls like people, this manager treated them as nothing more than products. Sorella had been his invention, and they were Pink Diamond's only sub-unit that had a "gag": The pretending-to-be-sisters-act. This hadn't been that much a problem for Raina or Rae, but Mimi, who was the youngest sister in this game of make-believe, had a rather large fan base that was quite a lot older than the average Pink Diamond fan. The manager had explained it as 'they see you as the little sister they never had,' and as most were very well behaved Rae didn't doubt that, but Mimi absolutely _loathed_ her personal fanbase.

She hadn't been one of the most popular members of the main group, a thing she had lamented when they were all together, but now she had by far the most dedicated fans out of any of the eight members, just not the kind of fans she'd hoped for.

 _Maybe it's karma_ , Rae wondered. Mimi liked to complain about anything and anyone which made it hard for others to work with her. Rae was very patient and would often stick up for Mimi when fights threatened to happen between her and other people, which was one of the things that had landed her the role of big sister within Sorella. This was rather ironic, as in real life, she was the youngest member of the trio, though this wasn't public knowledge. Raina, with her 20 years, was one year older than Rae, and Mimi was a whopping 25 as opposed to the 17 they marketed her as. Mimi was tiny and her tendency to pout and stomp her feet made her appear younger than she truly was.

"I wish those Precure would just stop," she sighed, taking a swig from the water bottle she got out of the cooler and plopping down in the beanbag next to Rae while reading the news on her phone.

"Ah yes, and let the Glitches completely destroy Clairewood, sounds like a great idea," Raina replied sarcastically. She was lying down on the couch across from Rae, her blond streaked black hair in disarray.

"If the Precure weren't there, the Glitches would stop too. They showed up at the same time."

"Good! If they hadn't, half the city would be gone," Raina shot back.

"You're so defensive of the Precure, Raina," Mimi said in a whiny voice. "It's like you're one of them."

"I'm not," Raina said, sounding unperturbed. "It'd be cool if I was though."

"What do you think, Rae?" Mimi said as she turned to Rae, who had been silent up to this point. Rae shrugged. "I honestly really don't care. Whatever gets us home the quickest."

"Your answers are so boring. You're always trying to be diplomatic."  
"That's why I am the older sister and not you, granny," Rae quipped. Mimi scowled at her.

As evident from this conversation, Raina and Mimi did not get along. As they were supposed to be sisters, this didn't really matter. The audience was led to believe it was all just an act and found it charming, and Rae figured it'd probably be better if they didn't know the vitriol between the girls was real.

"I think I'll go back to my apartment in a sec, if none of you objects," Rae said. Raina sat up, a happy expression on her face. "Can I come with you?"

Rae nodded and smiled. "Sure." Mimi looked from Rae to Raina.

"What about dinner? Aren't you guys hungry after all that training?"

Rae shrugged. "I'll make something for us. Do you wanna come with?" She saw how Raina's face fell from the corner of her eyes, but ignored it.

Mimi shook her head. "If you stay here, management will get us food. It's a lot easier than cooking."  
Rae shrugged. "I like cooking!"  
Mimi made a face. "Why? It's so messy, and if you do it wrong it tastes bad. We're celebrities, we don't have to do such mundane things anymore."

"Yes, but it's _fun_ ," Raina said as she got up. She clearly didn't appreciate Mimi's need to whine after Rae already expressed her fondness of making dinner. Mimi shrugged.

"Suit yourselves. See you tomorrow."

* * *

Rae's apartment was near the top of the building that also housed their dance studio and their lounge. Their management had rented off part of an apartment building for Sorella to practice in for the time they'd spend in Clairewood, though now it had been extended for an indefinite time. The apartment Rae resided in had not originally been part of the arrangements and the girls had initially stayed in a hotel nearby, but she'd decided she wanted some privacy after becoming a Precure, and she had used her own money to rent out the apartment. Raina had kept faith they would be going home soon and so decided to stay in the hotel, whereas Mimi had refused to spend any of her own money if she could help it, largely depending on their manager.

There was also the fact that management simply refused Rae's boyfriend(who was also Sorella's photographer) any accommodation; telling him since his contract only extended to the photos he would be making his well-being wasn't their responsibility. When her manager had complained to her about him visiting her at the hotel, Rae had stormed off and made arrangements to rent out the first apartment she could find, which, admittedly, was a bit expensive. It kept her stupid manager away from her and it gave her some freedom however, so she decided the high price was worth it.

"What are you gonna make?" Raina asked as the two of them walked into the apartment. The lights automatically came on, and Raina jumped down on the couch in front of the large TV-set in the middle of the room. "I should get an apartment for myself, too," she said, while stretching.

Rae walked up to the kitchen block and opened the fridge.

"I was thinking curry."

"Oh!" Raina said, as she bounced excitedly on the couch. "Are you gonna make it spicy? I like spicy curry! Remember when we had this really spicy curry back home and Mimi pretended the spiciness didn't bother her but her face was super red and her eyes were watery? That was really funny."

Rae laughed and shook her head. "You should be nicer to Mimi. And I was thinking of making a mild curry this time."

"Why should I be nicer to her? She's the one who's always complaining about everything and everyone."

Rae started grabbing everything she needed, taking a knife and cutting board to start preparing the vegetables. She heard Raina move from the couch to the bar across from the counter, making it easier to talk to her without turning away from her work.

"She only acts like that to get attention. Remember, she wasn't like that the first weeks of Pink Diamond."

Raina thought for a moment. "Actually, I don't remember that. All we did was practice, I didn't really get to know everyone in the group."

Because the original group was so big, not all the girls were as close to each other as it appeared to the outside. All three members of Sorella had actually befriended different members than each other during their time in Pink Diamond, though Rae and Raina had grown close working together in the subunit. Thinking of it, Rae realised she couldn't think of who Mimi was close to.

"She was nicer. I think she wanted to make a good impression, but then when that didn't work she became this pouty girl who complains about everything because at least that way people will respond to her."

Raina sighed. "She's 25 though, isn't that a little too old to be acting that way?"

Rae turned on the burners on the stove and put down a large wok on one of them.

"Yes it is, but we don't know her history. Maybe she's been ignored all her life. There are little moments where I see the kind Mimi shine through. Mostly when you're not around," she chuckled.

Raina rolled her eyes. She got up and started setting the table. "I just don't have the patience to deal with that. Will Se-Jin join us for dinner?"

"He should," Rae answered, throwing meat and vegetables into the wok, which sizzled aggressively in response.

"What does he do when he's not taking photos for us anyway? Doesn't he mainly do portrait photography?"

Rae nodded. "Just small side jobs. He says Clairewood fascinates him since there's so much difference between where we live and here. Most photos are of robots and crazy looking buildings. He made a lot of pictures of that Luzia AI before she went mental."

"God, that was scary." Raina made a face. "She called me and grilled me about what I said at the Sorella concert. Invasion of privacy like that can't be legal."  
"It isn't. But Clairewood doesn't play by the rules of the rest of the world, remember."

The door opened, and a man walked in. He wore a bright yellow, unbuttoned shirt over a simple black and white striped one. Just like this striped shirt, his jeans were plain, but under them he wore bright purple trainers. He had a bag slung over his shoulder which was visibly overstuffed, more evident by the fact that he was holding part of a tripod in his hand. He threw the bag on the couch.

"Oh, you're making dinner?" He asked Rae without looking up, rummaging through his bag. "What a role reversal! I quite liked being a house-husband. I actually got an apron today, look!" He pulled something out of his bag, turned around to the kitchen, and froze when he saw Raina, who gave him a small wave.

"Oh, uh, hi Raina. Didn't notice you were there," Se-jin said in a high voice.

"So what's the apron look like? C'mon, show us!" Raina said playfully, a smirk on her face.

Se-jin cleared his throat and unfolded the apron, holding it up with a dignified expression on his face. It was a frilly thing, covered in purple dots. It looked like something a middle-aged woman might wear, not a young man.

"I thought it was fitting because Rae is the moneymaker in our little family and I am basically out of a job because I'm stuck here in this one city where none of my usual clients live, and I usually do the cooking and cleaning, so. So yeah!" He cleared his throat and threw a defensive look at Raina. He was still holding the apron up, as if it was a shield.

"Your 'little family'? That's so sweet! I wish I had someone who'd do all that for me, but management is such a pain when it comes to us dating people," Raina sighed.

Se-jin dropped the apron a little in relief, as if he'd expected Raina to verbally attack him for bringing the polka-dotted monstrosity into the house. _Maybe if it'd been Mimi in her place_ , Rae thought.

They talked happily as they ate dinner. Se-jin talked excitedly about new things he'd discovered inside Clairewood, mainly small streets and shops he'd missed when checking out the city's larger attractions before.

"I will clean up!" Raina announced after they'd all finished.

"I'll help," Se-jin said as he got up.

"Are you gonna wear that apron?" Raina giggled.

"Maybe," Se-jin responded while reaching for the apron.

* * *

As her friends were cleaning up, Rae sat on the couch in the living room. The tv was on, but she wasn't watching it. She wanted a bit of a distraction though, as she was worried Se-jin or Raina might ask her what she was doing if they saw she was browsing her phone and nothing else.

 _[Nana: I can't believe she's back.]_

 _[Genevieve: It was only a matter of time i think, i'm honestly a little relieved]_

 _[Saiko: Me too. Luzia was way scarier than any of the glitches ellie made]_

Rae bit her lip looking at the conversation her fellow Cures had been having while she had been preparing dinner. _I should organise something so we can get to know each other better._

The other three girls all went to school together and it was clear they knew each other quite well before Rae joined them. There clearly had been a dispute between Gogo and the other two, and she had deducted it was because of the whole debacle with Ellie, but that's really all she knew.

She'd tried to get a little closer to Gogo, but afterwards, going over the conversation the two of them had on the rooftop made her realise she hadn't been particularly friendly. Gogo had also made it abundantly clear that she didn't like Rae and she'd figured it was because she had a tendency to act like her superior.

How old was Gogo anyway? Fifteen at most? She was at least four years younger than Rae and the other two Cures didn't look much older. With the whole Sorella act going at the same time it was hard not to act like the doting older sister.

 _[Rae: Maybe we should all hang out sometime]_

 _[Genevieve: oh great idea how about next time a glitch appears]_

 _[Nana: Har har. You mean like when we're normal? I mean not Precure]_

 _[Rae: Yes, so we can get to know each other better]_

 _[Saiko: OMG NANA]_

 _[Saiko: NANA RAE WANTS TO MEET US PERSONALLY]_

 _[Saiko: NANA IM GONNA DIE]_

Rae chuckled as she saw the last three messages rapidly disappear from her screen. It was quickly replaced with a new message.

 _[Saiko: That wasn't supposed to go here]_

 _[Saiko: Please pretend that never happened]_

 _[Nana: I think hanging out is a good idea. What would you like to do?]_

Rae thought for a moment. She wasn't sure about that. She didn't really want to go anywhere where there were a lot of people as she didn't want to be recognised while around the other Cures as it could potentially give them all away. Maybe she could invite them to her apartment?  
 _[Rae: How about I make dinner for all of you?]_

"Wow, would you look at that," Se-jin said while leaning over the couch next to Rae. He was looking at the tv. Rae looked up absentmindedly, then hurriedly put her phone away when she saw one of Hera's housewives on the screen.

" _Hello everyone, I hope you've had a fine day today. I'm sorry for interrupting whatever you were watching, I'm sure you're all tired from work and school."_

 _She sounds a lot nicer now she has her daughter back,_ Rae thought.

" _I'd like to tell you all that my daughter Ellie has been returned to me and that she will resume going to school. I hope her fellow students will treat her well. I was in no way aided by the Precure, who are still responsible for the initial destruction of my child."_

"Ugh, there she goes again," Raina said as she took a seat next to Rae. "Wonder if she's gonna sic another crazy machine on us."

"She said Ellie is back, so her, I guess," Se-jin responded. "There was a new Glitch attack this afternoon, actually."

Rae nodded absentmindedly. "Yeah, she's back to her old antics. I uh, heard about it on my way to the studio," she quickly added. _Dammit._

" _However, the way I went about trying to punish the Precure for what they have done was wrong. I hurt a lot of you when I sent out Luzia to try and find their identities. I lost control over her and she invaded your privacy and intimidated you. This was never my intention. I'd like to thank Vilmar Barteau for his efforts in shutting Luzia down, you are a true savior to the people of Clairewood."_

Rae raised her eyebrows. She wondered what Vilmar would think of being mentioned by name like that, not to mention his little sister. Her phone buzzed in her lap.

"Ugh, she can be confusingly nice sometimes. Sometimes I think she's only horrible because of incompetence but then she gets scary again like at the concert," Raina sighed.

"She's a program, I think she's just obsessed with protecting us from harm and because she can't think beyond that things go wrong," Se-jin added.

Raina scoffed. "Yeah, she sure makes a lot of morally questionable decisions. That Luzia thing, and the people with that thing in their heads, and then there's her daughter running amok causing trouble…"

"As I said, she has a one track mind," Se-jin replied, gesturing at the screen.

" _As a show of my goodwill, I've decided to end the training program of Clairewood's police force early. I had planned for their training to be finished about a month from now, but now that I've been separated from my child I can imagine how all these men and women must feel who have been separated from theirs to attend the training."_

"Oh good, we're going to get our security back then!" Raina clapped.

When Clairewood had been first isolated, initially only the police officers and those of higher ranks related to justice had disappeared and been replaced by small robots that vaguely resembled garbage cans.

Three days later anyone else who had anything to do with upholding the law had been called away, though they had not been replaced. As a result Sorella's security at the concert had consisted of burly volunteers. It had done the job just fine, but Rae and the other girls had preferred working with guards they actually knew and trusted over these strange new faces. Her phone buzzed once again.

"Do you think they'll be normal? Or will they be like those blue eyed zombies?" Raina asked, as Hera bid everyone goodnight and the tv went back to its usual programming.

"They're called dociles," Rae replied, though her mind wasn't really on the conversation.

As Se-jin and Raina continued talking, Rae checked her phone again.

 _[Gogo: Vilmar just said she should be thanking me when Hera mentioned him on tv. He totally knows GDI]_

 _[Saiko: Maybe you can tell him? If you think he can keep it a secret he might even be helpful like he was with Luzia]_

 _[Rae: You can't do that, I'm sorry. I asked Bit if I could tell my boyfriend and he said no because his protection doesn't extend to civilians, so they'd be in danger.]_

 _[Saiko: I see. That's too bad...]_

 _[Nana: Omg dad's gonna come back home]_

 _[Nana: You just got an email saying we can come meet him tomorrow morning]_

 _[Gogo: I'm happy for you nana but aren't you worried he won't be the same]_

 _[Nana: Yes i am, but if anything it wont be the docile thing, we know that stuff doesn't take months so it just doesn't make sense! Anyway I don't want to think about that right now, right now i just want to be happy I'll be seeing him again]_

 _[Gogo: I get that, sorry]_

Rae raised her eyebrows. She hadn't known Nana's father had been taken away for that training program. It made her realise even more how little she knew about her team.

"I should go back to the hotel," Raina said as she got up. "Thanks for having me over, dinner was delicious!"

Rae smiled and nodded. "Of course!"

"Wait, Raina, hold the door," Se-jin said as he quickly gathered his things together in his bag. "I want to take some pictures of the city at night." He looked at Rae, who was still sitting on the couch.

"Are you coming with?"

She shook her head. "I've got some other things to take care of."

Se-jin narrowed his eyes. "Like _what_?"

Rae shrugged. "Just stuff."

He looked at her for a second, then returned her shrug and bade her goodbye. Thank goodness Se-jin wasn't one to pry.

She opened her bedroom window, and Bit flew in. "Sorry you had to wait," she told him apologetically, though he didn't seem too bothered. He landed on one of the pillows of her couch. "Did you hear about Nana's dad?" He said. Rae nodded.

"Nana just told me. I'm surprised you didn't know, can't you get in our phones?"

Bit looked offended at that question. "Yes, I can, but unlike Hera I respect your privacy! I am a good fairy and I've got morals, after all."

"Right, a fairy in a robot body," Rae said while sitting down again, reminiscing something Bit had told her earlier. "Why are you gracing me with your presence," she asked, smiling.

Bit didn't visit her very often as Rae was virtually always surrounded by people and it was therefore very difficult for them to have a private conversation.

"The information from the chips I collected tonight!"

"Oh yeah," Rae sat up a little. _I'd completely forgotten that was a thing with those Glitches_ , she thought. Bit had been slowly recollecting pieces of his mind that Ellie somehow had gotten a hold of, giving her and the other Cures little bits of information every time they beat a Glitch. She'd written all the new information down on her phone, so once again she took it out for this new bit of information. Reviewing the list, there hadn't been that much groundbreaking news… But at least it was something.

"Frederika is very advanced. She is more advanced than even Hera! Because she was made later than Hera."

Rae frowned. "Who's Frederika?"

"It's Ellie! Ellie's new body, to be exact. Her name was Frederika, but I guess Ellie overwrote it."

"Huh, that's odd," Rae said as she typed on her list. "So Hera didn't just build Ellie a new body then?"

"I guess not," Bit replied. "I honestly don't know if Hera built her daughter at all."

Rae reviewed her list:

 _Bit can do magic (is he from another world? Made through otherworldly means?)_

 _Ellie is a daughter (Hera's, confirmed)_

 _Hera was not made with ill intent (AI gone rogue? Made outside or inside Clairewood?)_

 _Ellie is number E (Fifth in line? Number E as in 5? What happened to A - D?)_

Then she quickly added on:

 _Frederika (Ellie's new body) was created after Hera and is more advanced._

She frowned. "What do you mean, she's more advanced? Is she smarter? Or is she less prone to bugs or something…?"

"Both!" Bit chirped. "She's smarter and her programming is better. But Hera and Frederika are not the same type of system, I know that too."

Rae stared at her list. "I think I know what you mean. Hera was made as a security system, while it seems Ellie was supposed to be like a human. A daughter to someone…" She furrowed her brow. "But who would build a daughter for a security robot?"

"I don't know, that does seem strange, doesn't it," Bit said.

"Actually," Rae said after a moment of thinking, "the reason Hera acts like she's Clairewood's mother is because she was programmed to act that way, right? She can't just decide to do that on her own, that doesn't make sense. That would explain why whoever created her gave her a daughter, maybe to give her some direct experience of dealing with a kid as opposed to just being a glorified security system to everyone who lives in this city." She looked at Bit as if she expected praise from him for her amazing deductions. Instead the little catbot thought for a moment himself, inarguably rooting his memory to check if he could confirm Rae's theories.

"There's actually a chance she wasn't programmed to act as if she's a mother and that she chose to do so herself."

Rae frowned.

"But you said that even in Clairewood the AI aren't intelligent enough to achieve self-awareness. How could she make a choice like that?"

"When I first woke up," Bit began, his blue eyes lifted up to look at Rae, "I was in the same room as Elleanor. Remember I told you all that she woke up _wrong_. It was really weird, the one moment I didn't exist, and then suddenly I did! And I knew I had an objective, and where I had to go, and that I shouldn't be in the place I was in and that _Ellie shouldn't be the way she is now_. She has powers no other machine has, maybe Hera is also not how she is supposed to be, and she can do things other machines can't. What if they're magic, like I am?"

"Oh yeah, I remember you saying that Ellie isn't how she should be. We really should talk about that more, we just got dropped into this Pretty Cure business without any explanation why we're fighting what we're fighting."

"There was no time!" Bit protested. Rae smiled and patted him on the head.

"I didn't mean that as a criticism, don't worry. But I think it's good to take the little time we have to talk privately to discuss everything before me and the others actually got our powers from you. Maybe there's been some answers right in front of our noses that we just didn't pick up on because we were in such a hurry."

"Oh, I see," Bit said, and two pink pixelated circles appeared under his eyes. "Um, so yeah. I don't know why I knew those things, I just did."

"Including that Elleanor was supposed to be different than she is now?"

"Yes! She woke up after me, though not by much."

"What did you see when you woke up?" Rae asked him, phone in hand ready to take new notes.

"I was on a table, in a dark room. There were bits scattered around me… I think they might've been part of my memory. I didn't worry about it then because when I awoke I had a very clear objective in mind that overwrote anything else, so I tried to get out of there as quickly as I could."

Rae tapped away on her phone and nodded thoughtfully.

"So someone was messing with your memory before you woke up. Did you see anyone in the room?"

"No. There wasn't anyone there, just me."

Rae tapped with a finger against her lips, staring at her new note.

 _Bit's memory had been messed with before he woke up._

"Wait, what I just said might not be right, maybe I'm jumping to conclusions," she mused. Bit made a sound that vaguely sounded like a mechanical "huh". Rae turned her head to look at him.

"Is it possible you weren't finished yet when you woke up? That could also be an explanation for why there were electronics scattered around you, and why there's a chunk of your memory missing. There's a chance it just wasn't programmed into you yet, right? Maybe whoever created you had no time to finish you. Or maybe you woke up by accident!"

Bit looked at her in silence. His eyes distorted for a second; Rae had deduced this happened whenever he was in deep thought.

"I didn't wake up by accident. If I had, I wouldn't have such a clear objective. But I guess it is possible I wasn't finished yet." He stated this information very matter-of-factly, though Rae had a feeling Bit seemed skeptical of her new theory.

"You can do magic, right?" Rae asked him.

"Yes!" Bit said excitedly. "I'm not just a machine."

Rae narrowed her eyes. "But _how._ How is it that you can do magic?"

Bit's ears drooped. "I don't know…"

"From what I know of Pretty Cure, they're usually in contact with another world. Maybe you were made by some magical space princess or something," she said half serious, half jokingly.

"I don't know," Bit repeated. "Things aren't the way they should be. I feel really lost sometimes because I know I was supposed to turn you and the other three into Precure, and that you were supposed to protect Clairewood, but more than that I do not know."

"Something went wrong," Rae echoed.

 _Something went wrong._

When Rae saw that talking about Bit's true purpose made him sad, she changed the subject.

"I noticed all Precure are teen girls. That seems a bit young… Why did you pick us?"

"Because I knew I was supposed to!" he said, his ears perking up again. "And I'm glad I did, you're doing really well I think!" His eyes smiled.

"Thinking about it, I think the Ribbon Precure were also teens," she said quietly. She leaned her head against the headrest and stared up at the ceiling. "That was fifteen years ago… I wonder if they faced similar problems to us."

"You really like them, don't you?" Bit asked her.

She smiled at him.

"I was only four when they saved their country. It was really my mother who admired them. She told me _'You can be like them if you're a good person.'_ So throughout my childhood I idolized them and others like them, though the others were all fictional." Rae turned her phone around to look at a charm that was dangling off the earphone-jack; it was a heart-shaped brooch one of her favourite magical girls used to transform in a cartoon she cherished from her childhood.

She chuckled.

"When I grew older, I got upset when I didn't get any magical powers. How can I be a Precure if I can't do magic, I thought. But then my mum said you didn't need magic to be a Precure, as long as you did the right thing."

"That's sweet," Bit said cheerfully.

Rae smiled and shook her head. "It really upset me when she said that, actually. I was in my early teens and I realised she'd just been telling me all that Precure stuff so I would behave. Suffice it to say we had a few shouting matches about that for a while after that," she looked away from Bit, feeling a little embarrassed about the memory.

"Eventually I started idolizing singers and dancers because I thought, well, at least those were real, and who's to say Precure would ever appear on earth again... And now we're here."

"Wow, that's impressive. You chased your dreams and achieved them both!"

"Yeah, I guess," Rae said, realising she never thought about it that way.

* * *

They talked for a bit after that, though they didn't achieve any breakthroughs with Bit's information, both new and old. Bit left to go back to Nana's house, where he usually slept, as Rae suspected Se-jin would be home soon.

"You're still on the couch?" Se-jin said when he entered the apartment, only ten minutes after Bit had left. "It's the same spot and everything."

Rae raised her eyebrows. "Was I supposed to be somewhere else? You weren't gone that long, you know."

"I know! That's because I want to show you something, so I came back!" He gestured at Rae to join him at the door. She grimaced.

"I don't know, it's pretty late and I'm kinda tired. Plus I don't really want people to recognise me right now, I don't think I can do the whole kind-older-sister spiel right now."

Se-jin clapped his hands together. "Okay, we'll just have to give you a disguise then. Come on Rae, please?"

She sighed. "Ok, fine."

* * *

"I look ridiculous."

She was wearing the disguise Se-jin had picked out for her, which consisted of a large black-and-white summer hat, big square sunglasses, a bright yellow sundress over which she wore a thick woollen black sweater, and bright purple boots.

"We match!" Se-jin said happily.

"We look like crazy people."

He nodded. "And nobody would think Rae Rivers of Sorella could possibly look this crazy, so everyone will leave you alone. Come on, come on, let's go!" He took her by the arm and rushed out of the apartment.

It turned out that Se-jin had wanted to show her the Seyfert building. As per usual space was being projected onto it, with thick clouds surrounding the building. Only this evening they were projecting a meteorite shower instead of a regular night's sky.

"I already took pictures of it and it took a lot of preparation because it's so dark, so I didn't want to take you there while I was doing that. But, I mean, it's pretty romantic, right?" He grinned at her.

She smiled back at him, which for some reason made him grimace.

"Right?" He repeated. "It's really hard to see if your smile is sincere or sarcastic with those big shades on your face." She punched him in the arm, laughing.

"You put them on me!" She removed the glasses and put them on top of her hat.

She hooked her arm into his and looked from the fake sky on Seyfert corp. to the actual sky above it. "Wouldn't it be nice if we could see such spectacular showers on the real sky," she said wistfully.

"That'd be really difficult here, there's a lot of light pollution in this city. I wonder if they can see any stars at all, _ever_."

"Do you think the barrier has any effect on it?" She asked, still staring up at the real sky.

Se-jin turned his head a little to look at her, thought for a moment, and then looked back up.

"Maybe, but probably not. I mean, we still get cloudy days, and the sun is still there, and you can see the moon if you try." He pointed at a spot in the sky. The real moon looked really drab and puny compared to the lightshow that was the fake sky on the building.

"It's never rained, though," Rae noted.

Se-jin shrugged. "It's not been _that_ long. Maybe Clairewood doesn't get a lot of rain."

"Maybe."

After a few minutes Se-jin suddenly tugged on her arm. When she looked down at him she saw he was looking at a person standing just a few metres away from them.

"Do you think it'd be weird if I asked her for a picture?"

Rae frowned.

"Why would you want to, she looks-" It was only then that Rae noticed the bright stars were being reflected _onto_ the girl's skin. _Ellie?_

"That's Hera's daughter!" she hissed at Se-jin, who didn't seem too bothered by that revelation, as his grin only grew bigger. "I know! There's nobody like her in this city! I could make some really cool portraits. Do you think she'd mind?"

"How should I know?! Besides, she might turn your camera into a monster if you upset her, you probably should just leave her alone."

The two of them stood there bickering for a bit, making Rae wonder why Se-jin asked her for advice at all as he didn't seem to back down, until someone tapped her on the shoulder.

"Um, excuse me, but aren't you in Sorella?"

Rae froze. She recognised that voice. She turned around with the sweetest, fakest smile on her face she could manage (she had not prepared to do the big-sister-act tonight) and nodded at Ellie standing behind them, her eyes wide. Her sclera were a shade of blue so deep they looked black in the limited light of the night, with her irises and pupils a bright blue, not unlike Bit's eyes.

"Yes, I am," Rae answered. A shy smile appeared on Ellie's face. This was a really uncommon sight to Rae, as she'd only ever seen Ellie scowling, screaming or upset.

"Nice outfit!" Se-jin said when it became clear neither Rae nor Ellie was going to say anything; one due to surprise of being talked to by her enemy in such a disarmed manner, the other one possibly due to being star-struck.

"Thank you!" Ellie said, straightening her skirt with her hands. She was wearing a yellow pinafore with a black-and-white striped shirt under it. On her legs were tights that were black up to her knees, where they ended in had her hair tied up in a bun _. She looks a lot more like a real person now_ , Rae thought. She hadn't had a very good look at Ellie's new body yet until now.

"I modeled it after Raina!" Ellie said happily to Rae.

"It does look like something she'd wear," Se-jin said with a big smile on his face.

 _He's just trying to make her feel comfortable so he can take her picture_ , Rae thought while making a face at him.

"I used to only own a school uniform, but I saw none of my classmates wore theirs in their free time, and it started to bother me… But I wasn't sure what I should wear, so I used Raina as an example."

"It suits you," Rae said, the first words she spoke after greeting Ellie. Ellie's face lit up.

"Thanks!"

"Are you a fan of our music?" she continued, while Se-jin fiddled with his camera next to her. Ellie nodded. "I would've come to your concert, but I was sorta dead then, so I couldn't. But mom said it was really good and people had lots of fun!"

Rae raised her eyebrows. Hera had said that? Rae hadn't particularly gotten the idea Hera thought much of the concert when she had hijacked it to declare her man-hunt on the Precure.

"You were dead?" Se-jin asked her.

"Yeah, you knew that, it was all over the news," Rae whispered impatiently.

Ellie didn't seem to mind being asked about it. "Yeah, one of the Precure threw me into a trash compactor and it totaled my old body, so I was out of commission for a while, so to speak. Good thing I can just be rebuilt, huh?" She smiled even brighter. "Mom was super upset though. She said something bad happened while I was gone, but she won't go into specifics. I just know it had something to do with Luzia, but she's gone now, isn't she?" Ellie looked really puzzled.

 _So Hera is withholding information from her daughter? Guess that whole debacle with Luzia really embarrassed her._

"She is, thankfully." Se-jin said, "She was scary." He held up his camera. "Mind if I take a few pictures of you?"

Ellie didn't seem to have heard his question, as she was still frowning and looking puzzled.

"What did she do?" she whispered.

"Your mother turned her into a Glitch," Rae said bluntly. Se-jin lowered his camera a little and looked dejected; he seemed under the impression that Rae's remark had soured his chances of a photo-op with Ellie considerably.

Ellie shook her head. "No, that's not possible. Mom doesn't know how to make Glitches, only I can do that." Rae was a little surprised her remark hadn't upset Ellie; she was almost certain it would've angered the old Ellie.

"Luzia changed from a sweet AI who wasn't interested in anything but singing and dancing into a virus that infected virtually every machine in Clairewood in order to spy on everyone while intimidating them in the hopes they'd spill secrets about the Pretty Cure," Rae continued, her face blank. When she remembered she was supposed to act like her older sister persona, seeing as Ellie was a fan, she cracked a (rather unconvincing) friendly smile.

"Yeah, she got into my cameras somehow," Se-jin added while looking at the one he was holding, as if it could still hold some maniac AI residue.

"Wow, that's pretty extreme," Ellie said, her eyebrows arched. "I wouldn't go that far, I want people to like me!"

"Except for the Pretty Cure," Rae added. Ellie nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, not them. They're bad! I wish people would see that. They killed me, for crying out loud! Would good people do that?"

Se-jin threw a nervous glance at Rae. She also didn't have a response to that ready.

"I think in the end they just want to protect Clairewood," she said after an awkward moment of silence. Ellie crossed her arms in defiance.

"Mom's already doing that! There's no need for them. Oh! Wait, didn't you want to take my picture?"

The sudden drastic change of subject was very welcome for Rae and Se-jin, and he quickly took some pictures of Ellie.

"Do you want a picture with Rae?" he asked when he was done. Ellie nodded.

"Um, I mean, if you're okay with it," she asked shyly.

"Oh yes, of course!" Rae said in her most idol-like manner, and walked up to Ellie. When she pressed her cheek against Ellie's, she shivered a little.

"Sorry, I'm always cold," Ellie said, rubbing her cheek and looking away from Rae.

"That's okay, no need to apologise. I was just caught off-guard a little," Rae replied, posing for the picture again.

* * *

"She was nice, don't you think? I mean, you'd think she'd be a lot more antagonistic what with all those monsters she makes," Se-jin said as they were walking home.

"She's just a teenager," Rae replied absent-mindedly while looking at her phone. She sent the picture Se-jin had taken of her and Ellie to the other Precure and smiled when she saw the barrage of confused messages coming in as a result.

"She's just a teenager with dangerous powers and a doting overlord AI as a mother."

"And really cold cheeks!" Se-jin added, smiling.


	14. Chapter 14: Keeping Watch

**14\. Keeping Watch**

That night Saiko did not sleep well. She thought about Hera's message on tv, how Nana would be seeing her father again tomorrow, and about the photo Rae had sent them that evening.

 _[Rae: I understand why you like her now Saiko, she's surprisingly nice when you're not a Precure]_

 _[Genevieve: omfg what if she realises who you are? Does she have a copy of the photo?]_

 _[Rae: I don't think she will, I'll most likely never meet her again as myself and I haven't talked to her much when I was Cure Circuit. She's a Sorella fan! And yes she does.]_

 _[Genevieve: Oh geeze]_

 _[Saiko: I almost wish she was mean all the time then itd be easier to fight her]_

 _[Rae: Oh yeah, she's in your class isn't she? What's she like in school?]_

 _[Nana: She used to have quite a temper which was kinda scary and she also didn't know how to read so that was a problem, she made a lot of glitches just cos someone in school upset her]_

 _[Nana: but i think shes mellowed out, shes on the same level as the rest now so she doesnt have problems learning things now. but i dont think she has any friends]_

 _[Rae: Wow, that's kind of sad.]_

 _[Genevieve: yeah if only she wouldnt endanger peoples lives whenever she got upset thatd probably really help with the friendship making process]_

 _[Nana: ...True]_

Saiko looked at her phone and thought. It was true what Nana had said, Ellie didn't have any friends. It made sense, she figured, as Ellie got upset easily and turned violent whenever it happened. But Saiko had managed to have a friendly conversation with her when she came into the shelter...

She bit her lip. Maybe she'd become more stable now; Bit had told them her new body was more advanced than the old one and she'd seemed a lot more collected when they fought her Glitches that evening.

 _[Saiko: What if we befriend Ellie and then reveal who we are, maybe she'll realise we aren't bad and convince her mother to lift the barrier]_

She deleted her message a second after she'd posted it. _The others would never agree,_ she thought, turning red in shame. It was a stupid idea anyway, Ellie still saw the Precure as ruthless killers, if Saiko ever revealed to her who she really was Ellie would probably beat her to a pulp on the spot.

She remembered how Ellie had punched Spark in the face. After she had de-transformed there had been no mark, but it had hurt quite a bit beforehand, Nana said.

 _She's a lot more serious than she was before_ , Saiko thought and sighed as she put her phone away.

* * *

" _Goooood morning Clairewood! It's Raina calling! I've got twelve points for Clairewood today, ahaha! Wait, would you even get that reference? Aaanyway, Rae made omelettes for breakfast today! They're super yummy. If you have the time, you should really make yourself a nice big breakfast."_

Saiko had changed her alarm so it went off an hour later, yet it still felt like it was too early when Raina's voice rang through the room. She contemplated for a moment if she'd stay home, but figured that she didn't really have a good excuse. She wasn't sick, and there wasn't any important events she could stay home for.

There was that kitten though…

She got up and quickly got dressed. While tying her ribbon she walked downstairs, through the door to the shelter and to the room with the mother cat and the three kittens she had rescued with Bit and Nana. When she walked in, two of the kittens started meowing enthusiastically and hobbled to the edge of their enclosure. They'd grown so fast!

In the corner, on the bed, was the surrogate mother. She was grooming the smallest of the three kittens, a pale grey one, which, unlike its siblings, stayed silent.

Saiko let out a sigh and crouched down next to the mother and examined the kitten. When she touched it, she could feel it was warm and that its heart was beating, but it didn't move. Her dad had already warned her there was a big chance the kitten wasn't going to make it.

" _That's how things go in nature, Saiko. If you want to be a veterinarian, you have to learn to accept that animals in your care will die sometimes."_

She wondered if 'I need to take care of a pet' was a good enough reason not to go to school, but waved away the thought when she realised her parents would never agree to it. She got up and begrudgingly walked to the kitchen to get ready to leave.

* * *

When she got to school, Nana didn't meet her there. She wondered during the first hour where she could possibly be, until she remembered Hera's message from the day before. Of course, Nana was meeting her dad. Saiko was happy for her, but felt sad at the same time; now there was nothing to get her mind off the kitten.

At lunch, she sat alone. She saw Gogo sitting on the far end of the hall but didn't go up to her as she was sitting with her own friends. _It'd be weird if I just sat there and didn't talk._

"Wow, you look really sad," someone said. Saiko looked up.

It was Ellie. She sat down across from Saiko and leant on the table with her elbows. As expected, she didn't have a tray of food or a lunchbox like all the other students did. Thinking of it, Saiko couldn't remember ever seeing Ellie in the cafeteria before.

"Oh, um, yeah, I'm a little worried about something at home," she stammered.

Ellie raised her eyebrows. "Is something wrong? Is it something with the cats?"

"Yes, actually. One of the kittens isn't doing too well."

"Oh no! Is it the one I wanted to adopt?"

Saiko shook her head. "This one is really young. It's at a point where it should be walking around a little bit and playing with its siblings but it's not doing any of that. It also doesn't meow at all…" Saiko felt something inside of her snap, and her face grew hot around her eyes, but she managed to suppress the urge to cry.

"I want to be a vet, so I need to learn that not all animals will make it to adulthood."

Ellie looked at her with a mixed expression of pity and confusion, like she hadn't quite understood everything Saiko just told her, but she felt sorry for her nonetheless.

"Can I help in any way?" She asked. "I feel like I should help you," she added more quietly.

"Oh, no, I don't think there's much anyone can do. I'll keep watch over it tonight, I think, just in the case of an emergency, but sometimes life just…"  
She stopped in the middle of a sentence, partially because she wasn't sure if she could keep going without bursting into tears and partially because Ellie didn't seem to comprehend what she was talking about.

"I hope it will be okay," she said while playing with her hair. Saiko had a feeling she was masking the fact that she hadn't quite understood her. It seemed she still didn't like it when she realised she didn't know something, but at least now she didn't immediately resort to Glitching the nearest machine.

"Don't you have a cat now? My friend Nana told me you bought one at Mori's," Saiko said to get her mind off the kitten for a bit. Ellie nodded.

"She gave it to me, actually. It had a broken leg and I tried to fix it but it turned into a monster," she laughed awkwardly. "I didn't mean to do that, but then the Precure came and destroyed it, so I took it home and fixed it without using my powers. I named it Gidget!"

"That's really nice," Saiko said and smiled. _Wait, wasn't I supposed to_ not _befriend her?_

* * *

"Yo!" Nana greeted her happily when she walked into the first class after break.

"Hey, you're here! I'd expected you'd get the whole day off," Saiko said as she sat down next to Nana.

"Nope, just the morning. We went to pick up dad. Him and the rest of the police force were kept in the business district, it's weird. But anyway, there were lots of people, and at first we couldn't find him, but then there he was, sitting at this table! It almost felt like we were visiting him in prison or something. He's totally fine, apparently it really was a training Hera put him and the others through. He said it didn't make a lot of sense, but we didn't talk a lot about it because obviously we were too happy we got him back at all so we mostly talked about family stuff."

Saiko hadn't heard Nana be this cheerful in a while, and she was truly happy for her, though she had trouble showing it.

"Are you okay...?" Nana asked, one eyebrow cocked. Saiko quickly nodded.

"Yes! Everything is fine, I just didn't get a lot of sleep last night, so I'm really tired. Don't worry about me. It's great you got your dad back!"

She smiled, but she could tell it looked more like a grimace.

"Don't want to talk about it, huh," Nana said sympathetically.

Saiko stared at her desk. "Maybe later." _I do not want to cry in class._

"That's okay." Nana lightly patted Saiko's shoulder. "Oh, by the way," she continued, though in a lower voice, "I did something that I don't want to tell the other Precure yet, but I think you should know cos I think you'll understand. I'm afraid Gogo and Rae might judge me."

"What did you do?"

"Well, Bit had a spare Cure Bracelet..."

Saiko gasped. "He did? Why did he never tell us? Does that mean there's a fifth Cure?"

Nana shook her head and held up her hands as if to shield herself from Saiko's barrage of questions. "It doesn't work, it doesn't have the same energy ours have, and it's colourless. Anyway, he gave it to me, and I didn't really know what to do with it, until Bit told us at the airport that Pretty Cure can't be made into dociles."

It didn't take Saiko long to put two and two together. She frowned at Nana. "Did you…? No way… You didn't give it to Yon, did you?"

Nana nodded. Her eyes looked determined, like she was completely behind her decision, but Saiko saw her cheeks turn pink slightly.

"I did. I said it was a present because she always looks out for me. She put it on, but nothing happened."

"Well, you did say Bit told you it didn't work…"

"I know! But I was still hopeful. Anyway, Yon has that bracelet now. I couldn't exactly take it back." she fumbled with her hands.

"Maybe it _is_ better you don't tell Rae and Gogo," Saiko concluded, while Nana's face turned even more pink.

[break]

Saiko had originally intended to ask Nana if she wanted to help her take care of the sickly kitten, but had decided against it when she remembered Nana only just got her father back and probably should spend some time with him. She knew Nana would never tell her no, so she decided not to ask her at all.

This _did_ mean she would be alone that night.

* * *

Her dad tried to reason with her, telling her that wasting sleep to prevent nature from taking its course was silly and that Saiko had to learn to accept she couldn't save every single animal, but when she told him she'd feel incredibly guilty if she didn't at least try her best to save it, he relented.

"Just don't get depressed if it dies," he said, to finish the conversation.

"I won't!" she shot back, though the tears burning in the corners of her eyes betrayed her.

"She's only sixteen, she has enough time to grow and learn," her mother said. "Let her do this, okay?" she gave her daughter a sympathetic smile.

Her dad sighed, and took off his glasses. As he cleaned them on his handkerchief, he looked at Saiko with slight worry in his eyes.

"I just don't want you to blame yourself if it does die. I know what you're like, Saiko. If you want to be a vet, you need to learn that animals die. They die often. People will come to you to put their pets out of misery. Sometimes that is a decision you have to make for them. I worry you won't be able to handle that."

"I know! And I can!" Saiko shot back, uncharacteristically loud.

"You are being too hard on her," her mother said, putting a hand on Saiko's shoulder. "Be proud of her that she's so ambitious about her dreams, not a lot of kids her age are. And you shouldn't be telling anyone about not being strong enough to to handle certain things, it took you a full year to gather the courage to ask me out," she said with a wink.

"That is something completely different!" her father said flatly, replacing the glasses on his nose, though he did look a little flustered.

Saiko's father was a very stoic man, something her mother liked to poke fun of. He was a kind father, but he never sugarcoated his opinions or thoughts, which hurt sometimes.

Saiko had actually been quite the same way when she was a child, but when she'd made one too many a child cry due to something she said, a teacher had taken her aside and told her words could hurt. Ever since then she'd become careful with what she said, growing up to be a very shy teenager. Very rarely that bluntness would resurface, and secretly she hoped she'd eventually regain the courage to speak her mind whenever. _Words are just words_ , she told herself. The lump in her throat had gone, to her relief.

She got a little stronger every day, or at least she hoped so.

* * *

She was in the quarantine room with the cats when she wondered if maybe she should ask Bit to keep her company. It's not like Nana could give him any attention now anyway, she figured. And it'd be a lot less lonely. Having him around helped her with her uneasiness around life-like robots, she found, which she liked. Right when she grabbed her phone to contact him, the door creaked.

"Saiko, there's someone here for you," her mom said, poking her head around the door.

 _Nana? Did you come after all?_ Saiko opened her mouth to tell her best friend to go home and spend time with her dad, that she could handle it and that she'd ask 'their other friend' to keep watch with her, but she abruptly closed her mouth when her mother stepped aside and it wasn't Nana at all standing behind her.

"Hi," said Ellie. "I thought I would help you with that kitten. Mother told me Nana's dad was in her police training program so I figured you'd be alone and you looked really sad in school today, so I came to keep you company!"

"That's… wow." She wasn't sure how to respond to that.

"Can I come in?" Ellie asked, awkwardly shuffling behind Saiko's mother, who looked a little worried about the robot girl in her house.

"Yes, of course, go ahead," Saiko said quickly, gesturing her to come in. Ellie nodded at her mother as she passed her, and inspected the room. "Wow, very clinical," she noted.

"Will you be okay?" Saiko's mother asked, Saiko more than Ellie.

"Yes, don't worry mom, we'll be okay." Still looking worried, her mother gave her a little nod and closed the door. Why did her parents even move to Clairewood if they couldn't handle all the lifelike machines, she wondered.

* * *

"So, which one is it?" Ellie asked while inspecting the box with the kittens.

"The little grey one," Saiko answered, still sitting down in the big chair. It was harder to tell now which of the three kittens was the sick one, as they were all huddled together now, apparently asleep.

"Oh yeah, it's pretty small isn't it," Ellie noted. She turned her head to look at Saiko.

"What do we do to make it better? When Gidget was broken I just put her back together with wires and bolts, but living things don't have that, do they?"

Saiko shook her head.

"Living things are generally more difficult to fix than machines."

Ellie nodded, like she just understood something. "Mother says that too. She keeps lamenting how fragile humans are, and that you need protection from sturdier beings like her. Sometimes I feel like I should help, but I don't know a lot, so I don't think I can really do much."

 _Not making Glitches would help_ , Saiko thought, but she pushed the thought away. She got up from the chair and sat down next to Ellie.

For a moment they just sat there, not speaking. Ellie's face was contorted in confusion, and she occasionally opened her mouth a little as if she wanted to say something, but then decided not to at the last moment.

"Do you know what sickness is?" Saiko asked her carefully. She had her knees pulled up to her chin, as if making herself small would protect her from Ellie's potential wrath. She had a feeling Ellie wasn't going to get mad this time though. "It's okay if you don't."

"I know it means a person isn't well," Ellie said slowly, "that it means you have a virus, or that something isn't working the way it should in your body." She cast her eyes down. "But I don't really comprehend it. I learned sickness is uncomfortable, that it can make you feel pain, but I can't feel pain."  
"Oh, that's a relief," Saiko sighed. "Uh, I mean, I wish I didn't feel pain. But I guess it's useful sometimes, or we'd just hurt ourselves constantly!" she laughed a little too loudly for it to be convincing, but Ellie didn't seem to notice.

"Pain is a way for your body to tell you something is wrong. It is a bad feeling, so you want it to go away, so you look for a way to stop the pain. Does that make sense?"

Ellie nodded. "I guess I don't need that. So what's this kitten doing that's making it feel pain? Does it have a virus?"

Saiko thought for a moment. "I don't think it's feeling any pain, actually. But its body isn't very strong, and I'm afraid it will give up soon. It's very quiet and it's not walking around like its siblings are, probably to save its energy to keep the vitals working."

"I see. What happens if they stop working?"

"It dies." Ellie's face wore the same expression it had during lunch break.

Saiko remembered hearing Ellie use the words 'death' and 'murder' when referring to her own demise, but it was pretty clear she didn't _really_ understand what death was. She couldn't reallydie after all.

Saiko looked at the kitten, trying to find the right words. She quickly shifted her eyes to the far healthier mother cat the kittens were curled up against in an effort to stop herself from getting sad.

"It will stop living. It'lll stop moving, and its heart will stop too. And then it's gone."

"Gone?" Ellie gave Saiko a puzzled look. "Will it just vanish?"

Saiko shook her head. "No, its body is still here. But its… its _being_ will be gone."

 _How do you explain the concept of a soul to a robot?_

"Where does it go?"

"Nobody really knows. Some people say when you die you'll go to another place, where it's better than here on earth. Some others say you'll be reborn, maybe as another creature. Others say nothing happens at all. You're just gone forever."

"You should try to find out! That sounds like a really stupid thing not to know, if death is that difficult to overcome."

"You can't overcome death."

"Has nobody ever come back and told you where they went?"

"That's not how death works, you can't come back. You leave behind your body, and that's it, it's over."

Ellie frowned at Saiko, who frowned right back. What happened after death was one of the biggest mysteries of life and Ellie acted like humans were just stupid for not having figured it out. Was it really _that_ hard to comprehend?

Ellie meanwhile seemed to think humans just hadn't tried hard enough to fight death. Saiko supposed with how demeaning her mother was towards humans with how much she coddled them it wasn't that surprising she thought they were stupid.

"Don't you have backups?" Ellie asked after a second. It was more of a statement than a question, like she couldn't understand how Saiko hadn't thought of her genius solution to death herself yet.

"No. Animals only have one mind. Once that's gone, it's over. You can't get them back. It's like… if you had a chip that your original program was on, and somebody destroyed it."

"What about a copy-"

"There are no copies."

"Oh." Ellie stared at her blankly for a moment, then realisation seemed to dawn on her. " _Oh._ " Then she looked at the kitten.

"But that's a baby! That's not fair." _Oh thank Gods, she gets it. Sort of, at least._

"Nature doesn't care about what's fair and what isn't," Saiko said while she sat down in a more comfortable way. She felt less on edge now.

"What can we do so it doesn't die?"

"Occasionally give it a bit of water. Check if it's warm enough, and still responsive. Honestly, we can't do a lot because I don't have that knowledge."

"I see," Ellie said. She tapped a finger against her lips, as if she was pondering something. "Do they have names?"

Saiko shook her head.

"The mother does, but the kittens don't. We don't give them names until they're a few months old."

Ellie balled her fists, looking determined. "We should name them!"

"I don't know, you create a bond with something when you name it. That might make a lot harder on us if that one dies."

"I don't care that it doesn't have a name, I'd still be sad if it died," Ellie retorted.

"But you only just met it; you care so much about it already?"

"Don't you?" Ellie shot back in an accusatory tone.

"If I didn't care about it, I wouldn't be watching over it right now. But I'd be lying if I said there aren't other animals I'd be more sad about if they died instead."

Ellie let out a cry of frustration and grabbed her head. "Humans can be so confusing!"

Saiko smiled. "Maybe you shouldn't think too deeply about this if you can't comprehend it. I know you can't feel pain, but that can't be good for you." She put a hand on Ellie's shoulder.

"Maybe, I don't know. But I guess you're right."

* * *

After a while Saiko went back to the chair while Ellie stared down the sickly kitten, unmoving. They had talked a bit, mainly about school and their hobbies and interests, as Saiko wanted to avoid the Precure or Hera as subjects, as to not upset Ellie (or herself, honestly).

Bit had told them Ellie had been created just to be a normal teenage girl. At the time it had seemed weird with how she sicced a new monster on the city every week, but watching her now, Saiko could see it. _I wonder if she's as confused about her purpose as Bit is._

* * *

"Saiko!"

She woke with a jolt when she felt a cold hand on her shoulder lightly shaking her.

"What's wrong?" she said slowly, a little sleepdrunk. "Oh no, did I fall asleep?"

Ellie gestured at the enclosure. "Can you check the kittens temperature? I can't feel heat and I can't tell if it's still breathing…"

Saiko woke at once and shot up out of the chair. When she looked into the enclosure she saw the other two kittens had huddled around their smaller brother.

"He's still breathing," she said after checking, though she bit her lip in uncertainty. Its breathing had definitely gotten weaker.. She wasn't sure if she should tell Ellie or not.

"Did it get weaker?" Ellie asked before she could make a decision. "I can't tell very well but I've got the feeling it used to take bigger breaths earlier tonight."

Saiko sat back down again. "I'm not sure, if I'm totally honest."

"Is there nothing we can do to make it stronger?"

Saiko shook her head. "We can't control what its body does at this stage. That's kind of a problem with organic bodies," she said with a yawn.

"What if… What if we give it robot parts? Shouldn't that fix it?" Unlike the last time Ellie came up with a mechanical solution to an organic problem, the air of superiority had been replaced with one of slight desperation.

Saiko thought for a moment, though that was tough, as she admittedly was still very sleepy.

"It could for adults, but this is a baby; it would outgrow the machine organs really fast and it'd be hard to replace them. It's also too small to do such a heavy operation on, it would most likely not survive the anesthetics that would be administered. Then there's also the fact that its body might be kept artificially alive while its braindead…"

"Braindead?"

Saiko rubbed her eyes wildly, in an effort to expel the sleepiness. "That's when the body is alive but the spirit is gone. The body is usually being kept alive by machines, so if you turn those off the body stops working too." Saiko tapped the side of her head. "Technically our whole being is in here, for us living beings."

"I see…" Ellie rubbed the side of her own head thoughtfully, as if she wondered if it was the same for her.

"What about you," Saiko asked, though she didn't _really_ want to know, but keeping the conversation going might keep her awake, "where's your being?"

"...My being?" Ellie rubbed her head some more while casting her eyes down towards the kittens, though she didn't appear to be really looking at them.

"You know; your soul, or programming, or ghost, or whatever you wanna call it." Whenever Saiko was tired (or annoyed) she'd be less careful in her wording, like when she was younger.

Ellie let out a nervous giggle. "I actually don't know. That's pretty stupid, isn't it." She avoided making eye-contact. "I should ask my mother about that."

"It's not stupid," Saiko replied, leaning back in the chair, her eyes closed. "You were born less than a year ago, most humans only now how to sit up and cry a lot at that age."

[break]

"Saiko, how could you!" Cure Circuit shouted at her. Saiko tried to sit up in her chair, but then she noticed she was strapped down. Her fellow Cures stood around her, all looking very upset. The room was dark with the only light coming from behind them, though she couldn't see the source.

"W-What did I do?" Saiko stammered, though the only sound that came out was a hoarse squeak.

"You befriended Ellie! Now she knows who we are, we're all doomed!" Shouted Static.

"Hera is going to kill us, and it's your fault! Clairewood will die of hunger under her rule, all because you had to go and be nice to an unfeeling, metal piece of…"

Static's sentence abruptly stopped when Saiko woke up. _What a stupid nightmare,_ she thought. She sat up as if to check if she wasn't actually bound to the chair, finding that in the waking world obviously she wasn't. She was mad at her mind for conjuring up such a ridiculous dream, mad that it had actually made her feel scared and most definitely mad that she worried it was actually a very real possibility. Not necessarily the Hera-will-kill-us part, moreso the part about Saiko letting down the other Precure.

She shook her head and looked around the room. Where was Ellie? She got up and looked around.

"Ellie?"

She quickly checked on the kittens, and with a start found that the small one was missing.

"Ellie, where are you?" She called again, failing to hide the fear in her voice.

"I'm here," a voice sounded from an adjacent room. _That's the surgery, why is she in there?_

Saiko cracked open the door and peered in. There sat Ellie, at the end of the room, lit by the bright, artificial led lights meant for properly lighting operations. She had her back to Saiko, clearly focused on whatever was in front of her. Next to the table she was sitting at stood a large machine Saiko did not recognise.

"You fell asleep again, and I think the kitten stopped breathing, and… And… I couldn't just not do anything," Ellie said, turning around.

In front of her, on the table, sat the kitten. It was curled up, with its eyes closed and its front paws over its face. Even from a distance Saiko could see its little body rise and fall as it was breathing, something that was drastically different from earlier that night.

"How… How did you…?" she muttered, not taking her eyes off the kitten.

"I downloaded every information I possibly could find about feline care, and how they work and stuff, and that's how I learned how to fix him. The problem was that there were fluids building up in his body, so I removed those, and then I built this," she gestured at the machine, "to take over for its lungs for a bit. And now he's all better!"

Saiko gaped at the machine, then at the kitten, then at Ellie, who stared back at her with apparent uncertainty.

"But… That doesn't make any sense!" Saiko called out.

Ellie herself looked none too sure about the miracle she'd just performed. "That's really what happened, though…"

"You said you removed the fluids, did you operate on it then? ...But it'd never survive being put under anesthesia, it's too frail for that!"

Ellie nodded. "Yes, that's why I made the machine to take over its bodily functions for it for a bit."

"But that makes no sense!" Saiko cried out again, "I-I mean… I don't think it does, I'm not sure." She grabbed her head, trying to process everything that had happened while she was asleep. What should she tell her dad?

"Should I not have done it?" Ellie asked hesitantly after a moment of silence.

"Oh no, what you did is good, you saved its life! But..."

She walked over and stopped next to Ellie.

"But what?"  
"I can't really comprehend how you did it," Saiko replied. She gently stroked the kitten with a finger.

"Neither can I, actually," Ellie admitted. "I couldn't tell if it was still breathing, and you'd fallen asleep, and I panicked so I downloaded all this information and before I knew it I'd made this thing and I was fixing the kitten. I just… knew what to do."

Saiko looked at the machine again.

"What did you make it out of? We don't have scrap metal lying around here."

Ellie bit her lip. "I altered some of the equipment in the room and put it together. I can put them back to normal, I promise!"

Saiko nodded. "That's probably for the better."

Ellie put her hand on top of the machine, and it started to glow. Saiko took a step back and instinctively grabbed her bracelet, but nothing spectacular happened. When the glowing stopped, several machines stood in the place of the one Ellie had created; they were ones Saiko recognised as belonging to her father's surgery.

"Is… Is that how you made it, too? With the glowing hand and stuff," she asked awkwardly as Ellie put the machines back in their rightful places in the room.

"Yes. It's a gift I have! Pretty neat, right?"

"When you said you made it yourself, I figured you meant you literally built it," Saiko said as Ellie sat back down next to the kitten.

"Oh no, I don't know how to do that. I can fix simple machinery like Gidget, but making a medical grade machine is a bit too much! I could download the information to find out how to do it, but unless I really have to I'd rather not." She leaned in a little closer. "I rather like being a normal teen and not some kind of super-genius," she whispered.

"I see," Saiko said. She plucked at the towel the kitten was sleeping on, unsure of whether to ask more about Ellie's 'gift' or not.

She ultimately decided to bite the bullet and just go for it. If Ellie was offended it didn't matter, they weren't supposed to become friends anyway!

"Is that the same power you use to make Glitches?" She said so fast it sounded more like the words had spilled out by accident.

"Kind of," Ellie said, apparently unbothered. "I've got special chips for Glitches. I don't know why I have them, but I do. They're very useful for fighting the Precure, though I've not managed to defeat them yet." She shrugged. "But that's okay, it's only a matter of time until my mother finds out who they are with or without my help. And then it'll all be over."

Saiko decided not to press the subject any further. Ellie didn't seem to mind, but it made Saiko herself very uncomfortable.

"Let's put him back with his siblings," she said quickly to change the subject. Ellie looked up and smiled. She gently picked up the kitten and wrapped it in the towel.

"See, I can hold things more carefully now," she said happily.

After they put it back, the kitten stumbled awkwardly towards its surrogate mother. He crashed into her side, granting him a quick 'mrreow' in greeting from her, and he promptly fell asleep again.

"So, will you name him now?" Ellie looked expectantly at Saiko. "He's not gonna die anymore, so he gets a name, right?"

Saiko smiled. "I think that honor is all yours."


	15. Chapter 15: Chickens and Tsunamis

**15\. Chickens and Tsunamis**

"Materialize!"

Static grabbed the purple hammer with a practiced hand and swung it around once before landing a nasty hit on Ellie's newest Glitch. Ever since her return, she had been attacking the city with more fervor, specifically targeting the Precure.

"Are you ready?" Spark shouted from nearby. The four Cures gathered together in front of the now incapacitated Glitch and held out their arms, their gauntlets returned to their original form.

"Recharge… Override!"

Ellie heaved a deep sigh as the Glitch vanished in a sea of coloured light. She jumped off the bench she had taken a seat on to watch the spectacle and turned to go.

"That was too easy. I'd have put in more work but I have homework I need to finish before tomorrow. See you next time Precure." With a lazy wave Ellie left the scene.

Static crossed her arms and started tapping her foot; apathetic Ellie possibly got on her nerves even more than hot-tempered Ellie did.

"Next time, we could try to trap her and force Hera to reveal herself if she wants her daughter back," she said, only half joking.

"I don't know if that's a good idea, I think she's receptive to kindness," Volt said in her usual high voice when she was particularly insecure about speaking up.

Static looked at her and cocked a brow. "Ah yes, as evident from the time she punched Spark so hard she went down."

"Well, she was being demeaning to Ellie…"

"Volt!" Spark called out, clearly surprised by Volt's keenness on defending Ellie over her.

"She's nice when we're not Precure, you've seen that yourself, Nana… I just think, maybe, there's a small chance we can convince her we're not as bad as she thinks…" Volt almost seemed to shrink as she held herself as if to shield her body from any disapproving words the other girls could throw at her.

"I threw her into a garbage compactor. I don't think she's going to get over that any time soon. I know I wouldn't, if I was in her shoes," Static admitted.

"Please don't beat yourself up over that," Circuit said, who only just joined the rest of the group after chatting to Bit, who was processing the information from the new Glitch chip. She placed her hand on Static's shoulder, which she in turn instinctively jerked away.

"I am not. I am just acknowledging it is a thing that I did, as there's no point in pretending it wasn't a mistake."

"What if you apologise for it? Maybe Ellie will forgive you!" Volt interjected hopefully.

"Or she'll punch Static out," Spark replied with raised eyebrows.

"She can't punch me out, I'm a trained boxer! I'm too tough for that," Static shot back, a little insulted.

"Her fists are made of metal, though…"

Circuit coughed a little awkwardly in an attempt to get their attention.

"What is it, Circuit?" Volt said a little too eagerly, clearly in favor of changing the subject.

"A few days ago I suggested having dinner together. As we're all here now, how about tonight? I can make us all something and we can get to know each other better."

Static saw that Circuit looked hopeful, but her face fell a little when she saw the expressions of the other girls.

"We'd love to," Spark started, "But Volt and I have the same homework Ellie mentioned before she left. We really have to finish it tonight, I'm sorry…"

"Oh, that's too bad," Circuit said. She looked a little dejected, but understanding. Then she turned to Static. "What about you?"

Static didn't immediately answer. She didn't want to hang out with just Rae, but she also didn't have an excuse ready. "Um, I should probably train, I've got some matches coming up soon, so-"  
"You should go." Static threw an annoyed look at Spark, who had cut her off. _Don't tell me what to do!_

"I mean it!" Spark continued, "Me and Volt are best friends, but you and Circuit don't have anyone in the group you're super close to. Wouldn't this be a great chance to get to know each other better? Maybe you'll have more in common than you'd thought!"

Even Circuit looked doubtful at this suggestion, but she cast a hopeful glance at Static.

She let out a deep sigh that sounded little more like a cry of frustration.

"Fine!"

* * *

"Why do you dress like a slob whenever you're around us," Gogo asked while trailing after Rae, basket in hand. They had gone to a supermarket to buy supplies for dinner.

"You answered your own question," Rae replied cheerfully. "Because I don't want people to recognise me when I'm around you guys."

"Really? Because it looks to me like you think normal people dress poorly."

"I am a normal person!"

"You know what I mean," Gogo hissed. She knew her behaviour wasn't entirely justified; Rae hadn't done anything particularly malicious to warrant these harsh responses from her, but there was just _something about her_ that rubbed Gogo the wrong way. The fact that she acted like she was superior to Gogo and the other Cures, just for being famous, for being older, maybe even just for being taller (there was an impressive height difference of over a head between her and Rae) annoyed her greatly. The fact that Rae seemed to laugh off every single snide remark she threw her way didn't help.

"Have you decided what we're gonna make?" Rae asked, disregarding Gogo's last comment once more.

"I mostly make pasta dishes at home, or risotto," Gogo mumbled. She didn't really want Rae to know she wasn't very confident in her cooking skills ( _she doesn't deserve to know my weaknesses!_ ), but then she _had_ insisted on choosing what they we're gonna eat for dinner… She quickly looked around the store.

"Um… How about pumpkin soup?"

"Oh, I haven't had that in ages!" Rae said cheerfully. "Do you have a personal recipe for it?"

"I, uh…" Gogo stammered. She had never actually made any type of soup before, let alone pumpkin soup.

"My mum taught me a really good recipe for spicy pumpkin soup. Should we make that?" Rae asked after a moment.

"I guess that's okay," Gogo said, rolling her eyes dismissively. Rae smiled and nodded her head, then trotted off to gather the ingredients.

* * *

"Wow. You pay for this all by yourself?" Gogo said when she entered Rae's apartment. In hindsight, she'd wished that wasn't the first thing she said while seeing the place, but she couldn't stop herself. _Me and my big mouth sometimes…_

"Yes, I do," Rae said, placing the bags with groceries on the counter. "Management put me and the rest of the group in a hotel at first but they had some rules about it I didn't like, so I got my own place!"

"Was the hotel not luxurious enough for you," Gogo said while examining the giant tv on the wall.

"The accommodations were fine. They wouldn't let me see my boyfriend, that's what I objected to." For the first time that day Rae replied with a hint of irritation.

"Oh, I see. That's pretty crummy of them," Gogo replied, less heated this time.

"Being an idol comes with a lot of restrictions in your life. In a way, it was almost like living under Hera's rule even before we came here."

"Then why don't you leave?" Gogo walked over to the counter and started unpacking the ingredients they had bought. _Wow, that's a lot of spices,_ she thought absentmindedly.

"For one, I'm under contract. Secondly, it's something I've wanted to do since I was a child and I don't want to give up on it so quickly. And thirdly, I joined together with my best friend."

Rae said this last part with a hint of sadness. This didn't come entirely as a surprise to Gogo, as back when they met on the rooftop before the showdown against Luzia Rae had mentioned her best friend wasn't in Clairewood with her.

"Are you always this… um, straight-forward when you're visiting a friend?" Rae said with a raised eyebrow. Gogo looked at her, the handle of the drawer she'd just pulled open still in one hand. She quickly glanced at it, then looked back at Rae.

"Well, yeah, if I have to ask you where everything is it just takes longer." Gogo braced herself, expecting Rae to tell her off, but she just shrugged.

"I see. Makes sense. The soup pan is in that cupboard."

Gogo got the pan and then continued rummaging.

"You're really quite different from anyone I know here in Clairewood. Or back at home, really," Rae continued.

"That might be because I'm not from here," Gogo replied with a muffled voice, as her head was in a cupboard. She popped back out, holding an arrangement of different pots and pans.

"I find the people here are way too focused on not hurting each other's feelings, and it makes them insincere. Being nice is good, but being untruthful just to be nice is not." She held up one of the pans. "Do we need any of these?"

"Oh, no, I think we have everything now," Rae said. "I think I agree with you on that."

"Really? If I'm honest, I actually thought you were one of those insincere people."  
Gogo grabbed an assortment of knives, closed the cupboard and got up, and came face to face with Rae, who looked very upset. She felt a pang of guilt. With how cheerful Rae had responded to all her insults so far, she hadn't expected this specific remark would strike a nerve.

"I-I'm not insincere. I mean, I don't want to be…" She stood there, looming over Gogo in height, but the way she was holding herself now made her look like a small, broken bird.

"Well, you're an idol, right? It's expected of you to be fake. Don't worry too much about what I say!" Gogo laughed awkwardly. "Just, when you're with me and the other Precure, don't be afraid to let loose and be yourself a little."

"I'm not fake," Rae repeated. Her eyebrows knitted together in a frown now.

"But you've said yourself that the 'big-sister-thing' is an act." Gogo stared at Rae, then quickly put down the knives she was still holding.

Rae cast her eyes down. "That's not entirely true. I tend to feel responsible for people really quickly and… And I know that can make me come off as controlling." She dug her nails into the pumpkin she was holding. "I think that's why they chose me to be the big sister in Sorella. I've been struggling with it but… I don't think I can stop." Suddenly she met Gogo's eyes. "Do you really think it's a bad thing?"

Seeing Rae look so insecure was such a bewildering sight that it took Gogo a moment to find the right words for her answer. "B-being worried about people isn't bad." She took a deep breath. _I never hold my tongue, and I'm not going to start now._ "But being controlling is."

Rae now looked like a hurt puppy. She turned away from Gogo and placed the pumpkin on the counter. She grabbed one of the knives and stabbed into the pumpkin so violently that Gogo took a step back.

She watched Rae hack away at the pumpkin from a safe distance, carefully thinking over her next words. She didn't want to sugarcoat anything, but then again Rae was now wielding a knife…

"Maybe… Maybe we can work with a stopword?"  
"A what?" Rae turned to look at Gogo, the knife still clutched in her hand.

"You know, if you say something controlling, I can say a word and then you'll know it wasn't okay to say and then maybe you'll learn to stop doing it. It was something mémère did with me when I was younger, actually, and it worked! Well, it sorta did."

Rae struggled to tear the knife out of the pumpkin. "These things are such a hassle to cut, they're so tough before you cook them! I don't know if it's possible to cut them without looking like a maniac."

 _Oh, so she's not mad. That's a relief._

"What kind of word do you propose?"

"Uh, oh geeze, I hadn't thought of a word yet," Gogo admitted. "Mémère always said 'no tsunami' when I was being too rowdy. When I was younger I was really brash and I'd hurt my friends. I even hurt Vilmar sometimes and he's ten years older than me, I just didn't realise how strong I was." She felt a pang of sadness and guilt when she spoke of her grandmother. _I've been a Precure for a while now, and I'm still stuck in this city, away from her._

" _No tsunami_?"

"Because my name means 'white wave'. She told me it's okay to be strong like a wave but don't lose control. Don't become a tsunami. So that's where that comes from." Gogo didn't notice she was crying until she blinked and two fat tears rolled down her cheeks.

Rae didn't rush over to her, or hug her or initiate any bodily contact like she feared, she just turned around a little more and her eyes were more sympathetic than they were before.

"You miss her."

"Yes," Gogo croaked.

"We'll get out," Rae said resolutely. "Don't doubt that one second. We will."  
"I know," Gogo replied. She wiped the tears off her cheeks in vain, as they were immediately replaced by new ones.

She found something she had in common with Rae Rivers: Determination.

* * *

Dropping the subject of stopwords for a bit, the two continued preparing dinner, discussing nothing but cooking-related things.

After Gogo had stopped crying, Rae breached the subject again.

"Maybe we could do something with my name as the word?"

"Your last name is Rivers, so that's also water… But your problem isn't that you're too brash… Hm. What does your first name mean?"

"It's actually 'Narae' in full. It means 'wings'."

Gogo pounded a fist on the counter, which made Rae jump. "Chicken!" she declared.

"...What?"

"You know, like a brooding hen? You get all coddly and overly worried and stuff and you want to keep people close so you can control what they do. Like what chickens do with their chicks."

Rae stared at her for a moment. "I don't know if I want you to shout 'chicken' at me during Precure business."

A smug smile formed on Gogo's lips. "You know, if you let me pick the word we're gonna use, that'd be really not-controlling of you."

Rae scowled at her, though she was half-smirking. "You're abusing the situation!"

"If you don't like the word we're using, you're probably more likely to avoid situations in which I have to use it, it's a great idea!" Gogo laughed.

* * *

Dinner was as good as ready. All they had to do was wait for the pumpkin to soften enough so they could blend it. They were now lounging on the big couches in front of the tv.

"You know," Gogo began, "You're not so bad. I'm sorry for acting the way I did."

Rae smiled. "You reminded me a lot of one of my Sorella partners at first. She's really stubborn and bossy and it puts people off. But I know that's not how she really is, it's just a shield she puts up. I thought maybe you were the same way, so I chose to just grin and bear it whenever you flung an insult at me."

"The insults weren't a shield," Gogo retorted. She wanted to say more, but Rae cut her off.

"Are you sure? Wouldn't it be more fair and straight-forward to tell me you didn't like me, instead of trying to offend me until I leave you alone?"

Gogo felt a jolt of anger rise inside of her and sat up with a jerk. She met Rae's eyes, which seemed to be a brighter blue than normal. She was sitting upright and clinging onto the couch with two hands, as if preparing for an impact of sorts.

"I took a leaf from your book, and decided to be upfront, like you are. You say honesty is better than being nice and lying, right?"

"I… Never looked at it that way," Gogo admitted. She cast her eyes down, unable to look at Rae, who was now fiercely staring her down.

"I don't mean to hurt you!" Rae quickly said. "But I think we can both learn things from each other here."

"You're right, I should've just said that I didn't like you. I guess that was too straight-forward even for me," she blushed. "I did it with Luzia too, before she went crazy. My brother coded a filter into her so she wouldn't register it whenever I insulted her. I should've realised then I went too far, but I… didn't."

"It's hard to change your behaviour if nobody tells you about it," Rae said. She loosened her grip on the couch and leaned towards Gogo a little, though she was still well outside of Gogo's personal space. "Oh, I think the soup is ready!" She got up and darted over to the kitchen.

Gogo liked that Rae kept her distance. She spoke words of support but never once got too close during this evening. She had a better insight into a person's character than Gogo had realised.

 _Maybe if I wasn't so busy finding new ways to insult her, I'd have realised that sooner._

"Oh no, we forgot to add the spices…" Rae called. "Well, no worries, I'll add them now. We'll just have to wait a few minutes longer, I hope you don't mind!"

"No, that's fine. Where's the remote for the tv?" She called back. She kinda hoped the rest of the evening could be about fun, inane subjects and not the inner workings of her teenage mind.

"It doesn't have a remote. This is Clairewood we're in, remember?" Rae walked back to the tv.  
"Edward, turn on the tv please."  
 _"Good evening Rae. Which channel would you like me to put on?"_

Gogo gaped at the tv.

"Put on Personal Videos, please. I want to show Gogo something."

" _Of course."_

The tv turned on and a chessboard of different videos appeared.

"This is a video from before I joined Pink Diamond," Rae said as she walked towards the tv.

Right before she could select a video, Gogo stopped her.

"Wait, you're not gonna acknowledge that the tv just called you by name?"

"You're surprised by that? Didn't you live with a virtual AI until recently? Also it's not my tv, it's the room. Edward is in charge of all the electronics. Well, the tv and the lights and those kinds of things, not things Hera could potentially murder me with." She chuckled. Gogo didn't find that particularly funny though.

"How do you know Hera isn't listening to you through him?"

"Because Bit made him impenetrable for her when I first became a Precure. He's not very complex, that's probably why it wasn't hard for Bit to alter him. He's nowhere near as intelligent as your Luzia was."  
"She was Vilmar's," Gogo corrected her in a soft voice. "Weren't you going to show me something?"  
"Oh, yes! I bet you'll be really surprised."

Rae tapped a video on the screen with a single finger. The video was of her and a girl Gogo didn't recognise. They appeared to be in an underground dance studio, and they performed a dance to a very high energy techno-track which sounded nothing like the music Gogo associated with idols. It actually took her a moment to recognise Rae, as she was wearing a hooded jacket and a spiked mask over her mouth and nose; the almond shaped blue eyes were the only giveaway. The girl next to her had long, sleek blonde hair and wore a mask over her eyes. Both of them were dressed in all black. They looked like goth alien twins, the sight was bizarre and didn't fit Rae at all, in Gogo's eyes.

"That is my best friend, Seo-yeon. We were scouted for Pink Diamond during one of our performances."

"But… This isn't like idol music or dance at all!" Gogo shouted. Rae laughed.

"We were tall and we were pretty. Seo-yeon has a rebellious look, and I look angelic. My voice is sweet and hers is raspy. They thought it fit the group well. Being an idol is more than just singing. You're selling a personality, and friendship, kind of."

"That's creepy."

"It does sound a little off-putting that way. But I had lots of fun in Pink Diamond, I got along with everyone, even Mimi. Seo-yeon drove our managers up the wall sometimes, but I think that made the work more bearable. The managers at first worried she'd start scandals because she doesn't censor herself and doesn't abide by any rules she doesn't like, but it turned out the fans liked her for that. I did too. When I got too fussy about things she'd call me _umma_ until I stopped."

"Umma?"

"It means mom," Rae laughed. "I guess we kind of had our own safe-word system. Oh, I should check on the soup!"

 _Once we get out, I'd like to meet Seo-yeon_ , Gogo thought to herself.

* * *

"Dinner's ready!" Rae called after a while. She put two plates filled with light orange soup on the table, a big plate with bread and an assortment of finger foods in the middle.

Gogo eagerly took a bite of the soup. Tears began to fill her eyes, though not of sadness this time. _Hot hot hot!_

"Oh dear," Rae said. She went over to the counter and filled a glass with water. "Do you need anything else?" she said as she quickly brought the glass over to Gogo, who was quickly turning red. "I've also got milk, if that helps better, or we can put coconut milk in the soup, that'll mellow it out a little, or-"

"Ch-chicken," Gogo choked.


	16. Chapter 16: Blue and Silver

**16\. Blue and Silver**

"Mom! Mother! Look what I got!"

Ellie ran back into her home and fumbled with her schoolbag, nearly tripping over her own feet as she was too excited to look where she was going.

"Look!" She pulled a swimsuit from her bag. "I saw it in a magazine, and people were wearing it on the beach and it looked fun. I want to go to the beach tomorrow!"

"Oh, honey, that's lovely, but I'm not sure that's a good idea," her mother replied.

Ellie dropped the hand holding up the swimsuit a little. "Why not?"

"Remember what happened when you tried to swim at the harbor a while ago? It's too risky, dear."

Ellie stomped her foot, wringing the new swimsuit in her hand. "I know! I was stupid then, I jumped off the harbor right into deep water. But now I'm going to the beach, and I'm going to stay in the part where my feet can touch the ground, so I'll be just fine. Come on mom, it looked so fun in the magazines!"

Hera sighed. "Alright. Do you have some friends to go with?"

"I didn't think of that," Ellie admitted. "I got the idea to go to the beach and then bought the suit but I didn't think of taking anyone. It might not be fun if I'm alone..."

"Don't get sad! You've made friends in your class right? Maybe you can ask them."

Ellie's face lit up. "Oh yeah, Saiko and Nana! I totally forgot about that. It's such a weird idea that I have friends now." She smiled and walked to her room, where Gidget was waiting for her on her bed.

She sat down at her desk and took out her homework.

"That's weird to you?"

Her mother had been quiet for several minutes after Ellie had gone to her own room, so her suddenly speaking came as a bit of a surprise.

"A little bit. People love the Precure and I make giant scary monsters. I'd think people wouldn't like me for that."

"People shouldn't love the Pretty Cure. They should love you, and me, too! I protect them, and you are my child."  
"I know that mom, but look at it from their point of view: There's these four masked, colourful people who fight giant monsters that destroy buildings and cause lots of havoc. Who do you think the heroes are in this scenario?"

"People have to understand that you are a teenager and that sometimes you lose control of your emotions and create a Glitch out of frustration. You're not a human, they should have sympathy. And your Glitches are good for weakening the Precure, so we might be able to catch them."

"I guess," Ellie mumbled. "But I can't help but feel that things aren't the way they should be." She turned over her hand and studied her palm. "For one, I don't know why I can make Glitches. I have these chips that turn machines into semi-sentient monsters, and that little catbot always collects them after the Precure defeated the Glitch. I used to be too angry to even care about him doing that, but now I wonder what he needs those chips for." She sighed, and put her cheeks in her hands. "Don't you worry about that sometimes, mother? Don't you feel like there's something missing?"

"I think you are just confused because of your age. Being a teenager comes with a lot of new experiences and they can make you feel lost sometimes. Just focus on your schoolwork for now, honey. Tomorrow you can ask your friends to go to the beach with you, and have fun! Leave the hard stuff to your mother. I just want you to be happy."

* * *

 _[Rae: We are going to the beach today. This isn't a question, this is a set event that all of you are coming to because we have some serious bonding to catch up on.]_

 _[Genevieve: Chicken]_

 _[Rae: I know, but I mean it! The weather is great and it's saturday so you can't have homework you have to finish and I want to get to know you all better!]_

 _[Rae: Also, the rest of Sorella will be there too.]_

 _[Saiko: AAAAAAA]_

 _[Nana: Why did you say chicken]_

 _[Rae: How about 2pm?]_

 _[Nana: Uh, I guess that'd work. Aren't you worried people will be suspicious you're hanging out with three seemingly random girls? I mean people already kinda know one of the Precure is in Sorella, so…]_

 _[Rae: Don't worry, I've thought of that. Just be there!]_

"Would you look at that beautiful blue sky," Se-jin said grinning, gazing up at the cloudless sky above them. "Perfect weather for a photoshoot."

"Do we really need to cordon off half the beach for it, though?" Raina whispered to Rae, while watching the crew set up for the shoot.

"I figure they'll lift it when we're done," Rae replied. They were already dressed for the shoot in brightly coloured swimsuits and summer hats and decorative skirts. Mimi had added a giant pair of sunglasses to her outfit that made her look not unlike a sparkly insect. She was lying down on a towel, and thanks to the shades Rae couldn't tell if she was asleep or not.

"Oh boo, I hope they don't! I'd love to have a swim in peace." _So she's not sleeping then._

"You should stop tanning before you get sunburned, otherwise it'll look like Sorella's youngest sister has been replaced with a lobster," Raina sneered.

"They can photoshop the photos, it's fine if I get too tan or whatever," Mimi replied dismissively.

"Stop depending on other people to do everything for you."

Mimi sat up and jerked the sunglasses off her face, scowling up at Raina. "Oh my god Raina, it's their job."

"H-hey, there's the extras!" Rae said before Raina could open her mouth to retort. She hoped this distraction would keep Raina from turning the beach into Mimi's sunny gravesite.

The group of extras was about twenty people big. Most of them were decked out in beach outfits and looked excited, except for three very confused looking girls, one of them holding a bag which Rae was almost certain contained Bit.

"I'm so glad you could make it all!" Rae exclaimed, running towards the group. Her manager threw her a disapproving look, but she ignored him.

"The shoot will take a few hours. Feel free to relax when you're not working!" She winked at the other three Cures who were standing at the front of the group. She saw Gogo mouth a silent "oh, I see."

* * *

After a couple of group pictures and a few solo shots Se-jin told Rae she could relax. Rae innocuously walked over to Nana and Gogo, who were sitting under a parasol near the water. "Hello there, unknown extras. Mind if I join you?" She chuckled.

"Very clever," Gogo replied smirking, as Rae sat down next to her.

"Where's Saiko?" she looked around, but didn't see the shy Cure anywhere. A few people were swimming in the ocean, but none of them looked like Saiko. Nana jerked her head to the set behind them. Rae turned around and saw Saiko play a game of volleyball with Raina and two other people, while Se-jin was directing them.

"She tried to come with us but that guy told her to stay for the shoot with Raina. He said her energy fit Raina's or something."

Looking at the scene from a distance, Saiko did look like she could be related to Raina. They were the same height and their hair colours (ignoring Raina's highlights) were near identical. They were on the same team and Raina shouted instructions at Saiko as if they were playing a real game of volleyball. Saiko kept dropping the ball and looked apologetic as Raina tried to show her how to play.

"Should I go over there?" Nana wondered aloud. She was already sitting on her knees, ready to get up if necessary. "She looks so uncomfortable, I'm worried…"

"I don't think you should. Saiko can stand up for herself, I'm sure. If you keep helping her out, she's going to be dependant forever," Gogo said wisely.

Nana raised a brow. "Didn't know you had so much human knowledge," she said with a tinge of scepticism in her voice.

"Hey, I've seen the fire that's inside of her. She's a lot stronger than she lets on, I'm sure of it."

The footage of Volt bounding towards Static at the harbor flashed in Rae's mind for a moment.

"The water looks really blue!" Rae's attention was pulled to the bag sitting next to Nana (who was now moving to sit back down again, seemingly having decided Gogo was right and Saiko could handle herself). It was facing towards the water, and zipped open. She could see blue light reflecting on the inside of the bag.

"Bit! I'd forgotten you were here too," she admitted, blushing slightly.

"I have to hide in this bag, so I guess it's easy to forget I am here. But please don't forget to take me with when you leave," the talking bag responded.

"Well, I hope you can still have fun now we're all together," Rae said, though she wasn't really sure how Bit could have fun, seeing as he couldn't get out of the bag.

"As long as one of you keeps me company I'll be happy," he chirped.

"You are very easy to keep content," Gogo chuckled, "We are so lucky to- OW!" Gogo sat up and wildly shook her hand. Something small and red flew a little ways away. "You little-" Gogo grumbled as she rubbed her hand, her index finger swelling up. The culprit was a small crab that was now angrily scuttling away from them. "How can something so small cause so much pain," Gogo complained. She sounded almost disappointed it wasn't a bigger creature that had gotten a hold of her finger.

"It's a defense mechanism. Those crabs might be tiny, but they're really fierce! You must've accidentally lied down in it's personal space." Saiko had joined them. She sat down next to Nana, her face a fierce shade of red, though she looked happy.

"Well, if it comes back here, I'll show it my defense mechanism," Gogo pouted.

"How was the shoot?"

"Scary! I really didn't want to do it but I didn't have the nerve to tell the photographer no," Saiko admitted. She pulled her knees up to her chin. "And I can't play volleyball, so that didn't really help. But then Raina showed me how to do it and I scored a point and everyone cheered and that was pretty nice, I guess," she said, her voice growing quieter with every word.

"I am proud of you," Nana smiled at Saiko.

"I guess I am a little proud of me, too," Saiko blushed. "I wanted to run but I didn't. I think I've become a little more confident in myself!"

"Ok, enough with the mushy talk, let's go for a swim!" Gogo announced and she jumped up. She ran into the shallow water, but quickly slowed down and began to inspect the water around her.

"Is something wrong?" Nana called, who had also gotten up.

"No!" Gogo called and she walked in further, though after a few steps she stopped again and started wading through the water with her hands.

"It's okay if you're scared!" Rae called from the beach. "We won't judge you. You can tell us!"

"Chicken!" Gogo shouted back at her. She was scowling at Rae, but the older girl could tell she'd hit the nail on the head.

"Did you lose something in the water?" Nana asked, now standing in the shallow end herself.

"N-No," Gogo replied, "just… What if there's more crabs in the water? Or like, tiny sharks…"

"Did you see a baby shark?!" Saiko got up so fast she nearly tripped over the loose sand as she hurried towards the water. Without any hesitation she ran up to where Gogo was.

"Was it maybe a leopard shark? They are so cute! Where are they?"

Now Saiko was up to her neck into the water, even further than Gogo, an excited expression on her face.

"There wasn't a shark and also no crabs and you probably would've scared them anyway if there were any. I am now getting out of the water because I've decided I don't want to swim anymore," Gogo announced. She walked back to the beach with great strides, a little too bombastic for Rae for it to be believable that she had 'just'lost the will to swim.

"If there are sharks, we probably shouldn't be in the water," Nana called to Saiko, who was swimming further and further.

"Leopard sharks are harmless! And they're cute! Help me look for them, Nana!" Saiko called back.

"There are no sharks!" Gogo shouted, stomping her foot in the sand.

"There better not be any," she grumbled in a low voice, so only Rae could hear.

* * *

After Nana had made absolutely certain there were no sharks in the water (to Saiko's disappointment), Gogo braved the ocean anew and the three of them played around, splashing each other with water, and holding contests to see who could hold their breath the longest.

"Aren't you going?" Bit asked.

"Maybe I'll go for a swim later. Besides, if I go, who'll keep you company?"

"It is nice to have a day with all of you together without Glitches or Ellie causing problems," Bit said.

"We can have many more of these days when the barrier is gone," Rae replied.

A silence fell over them for a bit, the only sounds being the shouts and splashing from Gogo, Saiko and Nana's play. No matter how calm and peaceful a moment seemed to be, there was always the overhanging threat of Hera and her barrier. _We can't live like this forever._

"Heya Rae. Want to go for a swim? I can keep Bit company,"

Nana had come out of the ocean, grabbed a towel, and dried her hair.

"You make it sound like being with me is a chore," Bit pouted.

"Of course not! You are a great friend and a really valuable asset for getting us out of Clairewood," Rae said soothingly as she petted Bit's bag.

"That doesn't make me feel better at all," he twittered huffily.

Nana sat down next to Bit, who was sat between her and Rae. She looked at Saiko and Gogo, who were now both rooting through the sand in the shallows with their hands.

"You know, I'm really glad they're getting along better. Truth be told, when we first got the whole team together I was a little worried we'd end up never really liking each other."

"I feel the same," Rae replied.

She'd realised, though it didn't make her particularly happy, that Nana had naturally grown into the leader of their Precure team. She had a big sense of responsibility and wasn't afraid to speak her mind. She was very mature for a girl of only sixteen, Rae thought. Though it was only three years ago she had been sixteen herself, she had been nowhere near as level-headed as Nana was now. Besides, not being the leader would help Rae with her tendency to control everything. It was a good thing that someone else was the leader, even if they were her junior. Nana seemed like someone who could handle it perfectly well.

"It's stupid, but I can't help but wonder where Ellie is now," Nana said after a moment. "I feel happy, but there's always this worry about what she's gonna do next. I mean, what if she attacks the city, and we're just sitting here on the beach doing nothing while she destroys half of Clairewood?"

"Impossible! I can sense it when Ellie makes a Glitch. She uses my chips for it, after all," Bit spoke up.

"Oh yeah, that's true, isn't it. Plus, I guess she doesn't really attack anything unless it's to draw our attention."

"I've noticed that too," Rae replied. "For a Cure villain she's not particularly malevolent. I remember back when the Ribbon Precure were around their enemies were a lot fiercer looking and they seemed to be intent on spreading evil or taking over the world or something."

Nana opened her mouth to speak, but then closed it again and stared at the sand in front of her, pondering. She took a deep breath, and then said: "Ellie visited Saiko last week. She helped her nurse a kitten back to health. Saiko says it would've died if it wasn't for her. Saiko thinks… Saiko thinks Ellie can be good. She only hates the Precure, nobody else, and she only hates us because her mother tells her to. Saiko thinks if we become her friends, she might change."

Nana threw a look at Rae, as if she was asking for her opinion. Rae thought about Nana's words for a moment.

"I don't think that's a good idea," Rae said honestly. "No matter how emotional she is, or how kind, we mustn't forget she's a robot. Even if we can change her opinion on us, Hera will probably just reset her so she's back to hating us."

"Impossible!" Bit piped up. The two girls stared at the bag in surprise. "Frederika was made after Hera. Hera does not have the ability to reset Frederika's mind."

"You tell us this now?!" Nana uttered.

"I didn't remember until now. My memory makes little sense sometimes…"

"Cut him some slack, Nana. We know somebody rooted around in his head before he woke up, they've clearly done some severe damage. You can't expect Bit to make sense all the time."

"Rae, your words hurt me," Bit cried.

"Did you remember anything else?" Nana asked.

"Frederika is more advanced than Hera. She is a smarter system than Hera is. Ellie was made to be a daughter, but maybe Frederika wasn't, I don't know."

"She's smarter than Hera? Wouldn't that mean she's more dangerous than Hera, too?" Rae mused. Nana shook her head.

"I don't think so. Hera is an AI who has control over almost every single piece of technology in the city. Meanwhile Ellie is a human robot who thinks she's a teenager. She might be more advanced than Hera, but she has no control over anything but her own body. She doesn't even control the Glitches she makes, they just listen to her when she tells them what to do."

"Somebody made them," Rae said, wracking her brain over this new information, "but for what reason? Bit said Hera wasn't made with ill intent, so she went rogue, right? But how? And why? And for what purpose was she made? She can create a barrier, and she's like an overseer with how she can watch everyone's moves… How is any of that good?"

"This stuff is making my head hurt," Nana sighed.

"But we have to talk about this, Nana. If we don't figure out why everything is like this, we can't beat Hera. I know there's a lot of information missing, but I don't feel like waiting around for Ellie to run out of chips to create Glitches and do more damage. Hell, we don't even know if she will run out, it might be too late by then."

"But there's so much that doesn't make sense on a technological level!" Nana exclaimed. "I've grown up around robots, and Ellie and Hera don't act like any I've ever seen. Their abilities have even my brothers stumped, and it's their job to make AI."

"I hadn't considered that," admitted Rae. "Clairewood is so advanced compared to the rest of the world, I don't know what the limits of AI and robotics are here. But you might know. And Gogo too. What's off about Hera's and Ellie's abilities?"

Nana whistled.

"Where to begin… First off, there's robots and AI who can act like they're human, but you can always sorta tell they don't have their own mind. Luzia came the closest I've ever seen, which is why Seyfert was so proud of her, but even then, all her opinions were based on mimicking people. When Ellie was in her old body she looked more machine-like and it was less jarring, but now in this newer body she's so lifelike it's almost like… Almost like she has a soul or something. I've never seen an AI so… Real. Then there's her ability to create Glitches. That thing she does where the chip appears in her hand and creates this ripple that transforms any old machine into a monster… That's simply shouldn't be possible! And Hera took control of the city in a single day. We've been here for months, and nobody's found a way to break through the barrier. If that barrier was purely technological, people would've figured out how to break it down by now."

"Bit," Rae spoke. Bit made a surprised chirping noise.

"When you first awoke, you were in a dark room, correct? And little bits of technology were scattered around you."

"Yes," Bit replied.

"You knew someone was in the room with you. And you knew Ellie woke up wrong, correct?"

"Yes," Bit said again.

"And you can do magic. This is also correct?"

"Yes!" Bit replied cheerfully.

"What if whoever made you also made Hera and Ellie...?"

"But… I wasn't made by anyone," Bit said, confused.

"How are you so certain of that?"

Nana looked at Rae with furrowed brows, clearly unsure of what she was getting at.

"Because I can do magic, and robots can't do magic. I'm a fairy."

"Oh!" Nana suddenly exclaimed. "Do you think...? No… But how?"

"If it's not technology," Rae began, "it has to be magic, hasn't it? Ellie and Hera can do magic."

"Wow, there's some serious tension in this place," Gogo said as she flopped down on the towel next to Nana, who was gaping at Rae.

* * *

Ellie was on her way to the beach, on her own. She had gone to Saiko's house, and then to Nana's, only to be told that neither of her friends were home. _I guess they're out doing fun stuff on a saturday together. That makes sense._ It made her sad nonetheless.

When she arrived at the beach, she saw it was very busy. This made her happy; it was just like she had seen in the magazine! She took off the clothes she was wearing over her swimsuit and placed them in a little pile on the sand. She didn't have a parasol, nor a towel, as she knew her skin wasn't like that of other people's and she couldn't get a tan or get burned anyway.

She looked around and saw people splashing each other in the water, swimming, or just relaxing on the beach. In the distance were several sailing boats.

She walked towards the ocean - _it's so blue!_ \- and set a bare foot into the water.

This immediately put a damper on her mood, as she didn't feel any different.

She saw the water make tiny waves around her foot, but she didn't feel it hitting her ankle. Maybe she should get in deeper? She took a few strides until she was up to her middle in the water. Nothing. She looked around and saw a few people near her lying down in the water with only their heads sticking out above the surface. They looked really content.

Maybe if she tried that…?

She kneeled down until she was submerged up to her shoulders. She waited for a few seconds, but nothing changed. She saw people floating on the water, being swept along by the slight current, but the current was obviously too weak to make her feel anything. She hugged her knees and looked at her feet, which were now buried in the sand. She saw the many individual grains, and she knew it was supposed to feel different from standing on solid pavement, but it just didn't.

 _This was a stupid idea, I can't feel the warmth of the sun or the coolness of the water, I can't even feel the coarseness of the sand… Why did I think this would be fun?_

Right when she was about to get up, she saw movement in the corner of her eye.

"Hey Ellie, you're here to- AAAH!" A boy had touched her shoulder and now recoiled in pain. "Ow ow ow..." The boy was one of her classmates, the same one who had talked to her in the lunchroom. He held his sore hand under the water.

"I'm so sorry!" Ellie exclaimed. She got up and walked over to him, wanting to comfort him, but he shrunk away from her.

"No no, that's okay! I should've known not to touch you."

A look of horror crossed his face as he saw Ellie's crestfallen expression. "It's not your fault. M-maybe you should submerge yourself!"

"Why?" Ellie frowned.

"B-because your shoulders are burning," the boy said. He pointed at the sky. "You're made of metal, right? So because you're in the sun, your body is really hot. I mean, in temperature!"

"Oh, I didn't think of that," Ellie responded, the other meaning of the comment lost on her. She got down into a cross-legged position, going underwater completely. She looked up at the boy. The waves distorted his form above the water.

She chuckled; that was actually pretty amusing. Maybe this beach-trip hadn't been a complete failure. After a moment, the boy joined her under the water. He was wearing goggles, and little bubbles escaped his nose and mouth every now and then, which made Ellie laugh. After a few seconds he went up again, causing even more bubbles to appear.

Ellie stuck her face out of the water. "Why did you get up?"

"Because I can't breathe underwater," the boy coughed. "I guess you can, huh?"

"I don't breathe," Ellie replied placidly.

"Oh yeah, I didn't think of that," the boy admitted. "I guess we both learned something today!" He smiled. "Do you want to play a game?" Ellie's eyes began to sparkle. She used her feet to push herself up out of the water.

"I'd love to! What do you want to do? In the magazine I read I saw people play with a ball, but… I didn't bring one. Do you have a ball?" The boy shook his head.

"We don't need any toys or whatever to have fun in the water. We can just do this!" He twisted his body around, arms outstretched, and flailed back towards Ellie, splashing a fairly impressive amount of water on her. When Ellie didn't so much as move a metaphorical muscle, the boy looked around a little awkwardly.

"I want to make a wave like that!" Ellie exclaimed, surprising the boy with her excitement as it was pretty clear he seemed to think he'd left her unimpressed.

When he showed her how to do it, he didn't take into account that Ellie had a lot more strength than a regular teenage girl. The mini-tidal wave Ellie proceeded to create doused about a quarter of the beach and it's inhabitants, who looked none too happy about this.

"My phone!" Several people shouted.

"I just dried up," another person complained.

"I've had it with you," an angry voice yelled. The owner of the voice was a middle-aged man, who was now angrily making his way towards Ellie and her classmate. "Just because you're the daughter of this-, of Hera," the man quickly caught himself, "you seem to think you can do whatever you like in this city!"

"Please, sir, it's not what you think," her classmate tried to calm the man, his hands put up as if to shield himself.

"But you're just a huge nuisance, with those childish antics of yours! Aren't you a robot? Can't you download some software to grow up so you can stop acting like a brat?!"

These words did nothing to better Ellie's mood, but the words that ended up cutting her the most were the next words uttered by her classmate, who by now she considered a friend.

"We don't want to upset her," he told the man through gritted teeth.

"Don't want to upset me?" Ellie said in a high-pitched voice. The boy now put his hands up towards Ellie. "You're afraid I'm going to make another Glitch if I get upset, aren't you?"

"No! W-well, yes, but-"

"Is that why you were being nice to me? Because you saw I was sad and you were afraid I'd make another monster?" She balled her fists. The old man was still shouting at her, but she had completely forgotten he was there, his voice reduced to nothing but vague background noise in her mind.

"No! I just want to be your friend, I mean it! I thought if you had a friend, maybe you'd stop being sad, and-"

"So I was right! If that's how it is, then you can get your Glitch, too!" Her hand started to glow, and she aimed it at the nearest motorboat.

* * *

"Glitch!" Bit shouted.

"Where?!" Nana shot up and looked around.

"It's probably not on the beach," Rae chuckled, until she heard people scream and heard a noise that was a mix between the engine of a motorboat and animalistic growling.

"What do we do? We're out in the open, everyone's gonna know it's us if we transform now," Saiko said nervously.

"You're right. It's probably best if we don't all go. Rae should stay here, because there's already so many eyes on her. Are you okay with that?"

Rae nodded.

"I'll stay behind too," Saiko said. "If Rae is suddenly alone, and only Cure Circuit is missing, it'll look suspicious." Gogo and Nana got up and ran towards the dunes.

* * *

"Ellie!" Cure Spark shouted as she confronted the robot girl who was now standing on the beach, admiring her handywork. The boat was chasing people around. Its driver had fallen off when Ellie had Glitched it.

"Is that how you're gonna greet me every time we meet now? What about a simple 'hello'? Or do I not deserve that?" Ellie bit at her.

"Materialize!" shouted Static. She grabbed her hammer and started chasing the boat, flying low above the water, though she had trouble keeping up.

"If you just make Glitches to draw us out, why did you make one here? There's lots of people, they could get hurt!"

Ellie rolled her eyes. "I don't care about that. They think I'm a nuisance, anyway!"

"You're not just a nuisance," Spark began, "you're a danger to everyone! I thought you'd grown up a little, but clearly I was wrong!"

Before Ellie could reply, Spark flew into the air like Static had. She summoned her greatsword and with the help of Static herding the boat towards her, she cleaved the Glitch in two with one strike. The two Cures purified the Glitch as it was sinking. People were cheering them on from the beach. Ellie's shoulders fell. She didn't want to watch this, and quietly picked up her things and left. Nobody, not even her classmate, tried to stop her.

* * *

"I'm home," Ellie sighed as she opened the door.

She shuffled to her bedroom, not answering her mother's question of how her day had been. She sat down on her bed and hid her face in her knees. If she'd known how to turn herself off, she would have.

"The beach wasn't so great, then?" her mother asked carefully.

"People hate me," she grumbled in reply.

"People don't hate you! You were so excited about your new friends lately. Did they not go with you today?"

"They weren't home. They probably didn't want to be around me. So I went to the beach alone, but then someone got really mad at me and a classmate said I'm dangerous and he was clearly super scared of me and then I made a Glitch, and the Pretty Cure appeared and everyone clapped when they beat my Glitch," Ellie croaked at the ceiling.

"Oh my dear poor honey," Hera cooed. "Is that really what happened? A boy said you are dangerous?"

"Not literally," Ellie grumbled, resting her cheek on her knees, "but it was super obvious he thought so. I think people just pretend to like me because they think they have to, because you're my mom." She buried her face again. "And at the beach, I didn't feel anything. I got into the water, and everyone was having fun, but I didn't get it. I just don't fit in with them..." She looked up and saw her face dully reflected on her silver legs. "I wish I wasn't like this," she lamented.

Gidget jumped up on the bed and sat across her, purring.

"You must have patience, Ellie," her mother said soothingly. Gidget bumped its head against her leg. "You might find it hard to figure out how people work, but they also need time to figure out how _you_ work. You are very unique and special."

"I don't want to be unique," Ellie retorted.

"You should be proud of that, my dear. If you keep having faith, if you keep trying, people will see you as I see you: A bright, curious girl who deserves all the love in the world." Ellie stroked Gidget's head with a finger. "You really think so?"

"Of course. I love you very, very much. And people will learn to love you, too. I'm sure of it."


	17. Chapter 17: Ellie's Song

**17\. Ellie's song**

"What about that one?" Nana pointed at a baggy sweater in a shop window in one of Clairewood's many hip tiny fashion shops.

"Don't you have a sweater exactly like that?" Yon asked with a raised brow.

"No, this one has a panda bear on it. The one I have has an owl on it!"

Yon chuckled. "Maybe you should expand your wardrobe beyond sweaters you could swim in. Besides, what is it with you and the colour pink lately?"

Nana put her hands on her hips and looked up at Yon defiantly.

"Pink is a good colour!"

"I'm not saying it isn't," Yon said laughing and waving a hand, "though I'll always prefer blue myself."

Nana was out shopping with Yon. It was the first time they were out together after Yon had been made into a docile. Sometimes Nana would still get freaked out by Yon's eyes or her expression which would occasionally become unnaturally placid, but for the most part Yon was still herself.

Yon looked at herself in the glass window, and started fumbling with the Cure Bracelet.

"I'm really flattered you've given me this, Nana, but I gotta admit it doesn't really go with any of my clothes. I don't own a lot of white things…" She tried twisting it around on her arm, but the bracelet wouldn't budge. "Also I can't get it off...It's like it's glued to my chip or something."

"Don't twist it like that! You might get a nasty burn or something," Nana giggled uneasily. "I probably got you a size too small. I'm sorry!"

Yon sighed and dropped her arm. "It doesn't matter. It's just a bangle, it's not super noticeable. And I got it from a friend, so I'm really happy with it," she added quickly as she patted Nana's shoulder. Nana rolled her eyes.

When she had given Yon the bracelet, she'd hoped it would turn her back to normal. Bit had said Cures couldn't become dociles after all… But then, Yon hadn't been chosen by Bit to become a Precure, so Nana shouldn't have been surprised when nothing happened.

But now the bracelet wouldn't come off anymore.

It was still completely colourless, and the cat face was blank, nothing had visually changed; but the bracelet was stuck on Yon's wrist, just like Nana's was on hers. To Nana's relief, the bracelet didn't interfere with her internal wrist chip, so Yon could still use it to check in and out of facilities (such as train stations and bus stops) as normal.

"Hey, isn't that…" suddenly Yon hurried away to a store a little further up the road. She stopped at a sign in front of it.

"Hey Nana, come look!" She waved her over enthusiastically.

The store turned out to be a retro media shop. Clairewood only had one, as here they were considered pretty obsolete, but some of the inhabitants could still appreciate the more outdated forms of technology people used to listen to music or watch a movie.

On the board outside and inside the display of the shop were adverts for the new Sorella album. "Feel the summer!" the ad on the board read. It showed a little clip of Raina playing volleyball.

"Hey, that's Saiko! That shoot was only last week. Wow, I didn't think they'd use all this material so soon, I thought editing it would take a lot of time," Nana said, trying to take in all the different ads.

"It makes sense, I guess," Yon said as she studied the holograms and videos in the storefront. "It's not like any other music is coming out in Clairewood right now, and Sorella is the biggest act here. If new things are made here inside of the barrier, it will keep people happy. The city won't stagnate."

Nana threw Yon a ponderous look, a hint of disdain in the way she was holding herself. "Are you absolutely sure Hera never speaks through you? Cos that last bit didn't sound like you _at all_."

Yon burst out laughing. "I thought we went over this! I'm still Yon! Besides, have you never wondered about that?"

"About what?"

Yon looked back at the display. "See how it says 'Feel the summer' there? But it shouldn't be summer at all, should it? It's autumn, but there's no signs of the leaves changing colours or it getting colder. Don't you think that's odd?"

Nana stopped herself just in time before blurting out _"I'm surprised Hera lets you say that"_.

Yon had a very good point.

"Now you mention it, we haven't had any rain either. Just sun, and sometimes it gets a little cloudy…" Nana looked up. "Do you think the barrier might keep out the outside weather?"

Yon shrugged.

"I don't know. I wonder about these things, but I'm not worried about them. Hey, shouldn't you be in some of these pictures?"

* * *

"That is lovely music you are playing, Ellie. Is it Sorella?"

"Yes! It's their new album!"

Ellie was sitting in her room. The voices of Rae, Raina and Mimi echoed through the house. Ellie didn't have any speakers outside of the ones in her laptop, so she'd made a few new ones herself that she placed in the corners of her room. She'd been listening to the album all afternoon now, and while she liked it, she felt a little disappointed when the first song restarted for a fourth time.

"There's only six songs on this one. There were fourteen on the other album I have. I wonder why this one has less than half… I hope they're not tired of making music." She studied the cover of the album on her screen. It depicted Sorella on the beach. Rae was putting sunscreen on a sunbathing Mimi, while Raina tripped over a crab near them. The beach ball she was holding was making its way to Mimi's head. _It looks like they have a lot of fun together. I wonder what having siblings is like._

"I think that might be because of me, dear… I'm sorry," her mother said.

"You? How so?"

"Being stuck in the city might have cut them off from their usual recording supplies. Musical groups have writers, and musicians, and all sorts of people who might not be with us here in Clairewood. It might take Sorella a while to find new ones, and a new studio, but I am sure they'll be able to. Clairewood is a great city, after all!"

"I see," Ellie said. This made her think.

"You really can't lift the barrier? Even just for a little bit…? Maybe so Sorella can get their music making people and stuff…?"

Hera laughed heartily.

"Oh honey, I'm sorry but I can't. It wouldn't be a very good barrier if we lifted it for every little thing, don't you think? We need to keep what's outside, outside."

"And the good things have to stay inside," Ellie finished. This wasn't the first time they'd had this conversation about the barrier. Ellie would've liked to see more of the world, stuff she had seen in her picture books or films or photos, but her mother never relented. The barrier must stay up, no matter what. She didn't understand it, not really, but then again, her mother was a lot smarter than she was, so she had to be right. _Whatever is outside the barrier must be really bad…_

"I wish there was more music," Ellie admitted. "I like Sorella but the same twenty songs do get old after a while."

"But there's lots of music! You have an entire world of music within reach, sweetheart. There's a chip-"

"Of course there's a chip," Ellie rolled her eyes. "I want to listen to music like humans do. I want to discover things I like myself, not by using a chip to know every single song anyone's ever made in history. Then there's no point in listening to music anyway, because I already know everything, and I'd probably get bored of it right away because there's so much music it'll all sound the same to me." She stretched out across her floor. A part of the song she really liked was playing, and she closed her eyes to focus on listening to it.

"That is correct," her mother admitted. "I do have to say I don't quite understand the appeal of music."

"You see!" Ellie grinned. "Finding new music you like takes time. In fact, I will buy some new music right now, and see if I like any of it!"

* * *

After a few hours of listening to wildly varying styles of music Ellie gave up. "None of these really do it for me… There's nothing quite like Sorella."

"Have you tried searching music in their genre?" Her mother proposed.

"I found Pink Diamond, which has Sorella in it, but they sound really different. Sorella is fun and upbeat, and Pink Diamond is more mature… I didn't think finding cool music would be this hard."

She suddenly straightened up and clapped her hands together.

"I've got it! What if I make my own music? It's probably not that difficult!"

Her mother laughed, endeared by her daughter's antics. "You are so driven. I'm so lucky to have you as my child."

* * *

"You're back! Did you get anything nice?" Nana's dad greeted her as she walked into the living room. Nana pulled an article of clothing out of one of the plastic bags she was carrying and showed it to him. He laughed.

"Another oversized sweater? Two of you would fit in that!"

"I just like them!" Nana stuck out her tongue. She put the sweater back and looked around. The house had changed, somehow. Some of the smaller bits of furniture had been moved, and there were several plants where there used to be none.

"Did you redecorate or something?" She asked her dad while checking out one of the new plants.

"I did. I figured you and your brothers let all the plants die after 'the protocol' so I bought new ones. You know your mother likes them. They bring some actual life into the house, as opposed to all these little robots."

Nana threw her dad an upset look at the accusation about the resident vegetation's demise, though he had been right. Pretty much all of her mother's plants had died a within a few weeks of the isolation. The house was owned by Shuya and You and the plants had been a gift from their parents. _We really should've looked after them…_

"It's something to do, I guess," she said, and sat at the table across from him. He nodded.

"I can't work, so I find other things to keep me busy. Shuya says I can help them with their prototypes, so I'll be doing that soon. But I hope I can return to work, eventually…"

"Not anytime soon if Hera has anything to say about it, I'm afraid. You've been replaced by a dustbin wearing a fancy little hat," Nana chuckled.

"They'll figure out how to deactivate her eventually, I'm certain," her dad said confidently. "She's just a machine, Nana. I've heard her talk while I was at that mandatory training of hers. Somebody made her, so somebody is bound to know how to shut her off. I'm glad your mother is with your grandmother, at least I'm certain she's safe there."

Nana was very happy to have her father back. Not just because now she knew he was safe and that Hera hadn't done anything funny to him, but also because he was so certain they'd get out soon. It brought some hope into the household, something Shuya and You sadly lacked as they were often too busy discussing the inner workings of Hera's mind (to the point where Nana couldn't make sense of it) or how they could turn the isolation into a profit somehow.

When her dad had returned, Nana had left the explanation of what the Pretty Cure were to her brothers. She was afraid that if she would've explained it herself (no matter how much she wanted to), she'd accidentally reveal some information only a Precure could know. It had also been pretty interesting to hear Shuya and You's viewpoints on things.

"These four masked girls appeared a few weeks after the isolation. At first they didn't seem like much; Hera has this robot she treats as her daughter and she causes trouble sometimes, and the Precure would take care of it and make sure everything would go back to normal," Shuya began. "But then they actually destroyed Hera's kid, and she got pretty mad."

You made a small "pah!" noise at that remark.

"She got _'pretty mad'_? She started a manhunt on these girls. Nobody knows who they are, because of the masks and their voices are all warped. So Hera used this idol, Luzia - you remember the Seyfert AI? - to infect basically any system she could find to try and find their true identities. It was bizarre, I've never seen an AI act like that before."

Shuya nodded. "Yeah, ever since that barrier went up, technology's been going mad. There's a lot of things that happened that we can't explain, and our jobs are all about robotics. Anyway, she made Luzia into this spying virus, but the Precure shut her down before she could reveal anything. Hera actually publically apologised afterwards. It's why she's let you all go I believe, didn't she tell you that?"

Their dad shook his head. He told them they'd been told they were let go because the training program had been suspended for an undetermined amount of time. Shuya and You looked at each other and nodded knowingly. "We figured," You mumbled.

"Anyway, the Precure are the enemy now, and Hera's daughter's become a lot more fierce. At first she'd just throw a tantrum and mess up a machine so it'd become a giant monster, but now she seems really set on getting these girls. I don't know if she wants them captured or dead or whatever, but it's all pretty crazy."

This last bit worried Nana a little. She had never considered what Ellie would do if she'd actually capture one of them. It was probably best if they never had to find out.

Their dad had been very interested in everything they told him about Hera, about Ellie, and the Pretty Cure, until they got to the subject of dociles. When they explained to him what happened to people who opposed Hera, he at first nodded understandingly. Then he leant back, arms crossed, and declared: "It's best we stop talking about these things immediately, then. I won't risk anything. What's for dinner?" His kids had gaped at him for a couple of seconds after that, but Nana was pretty sure all three of them understood him.

"How has school been lately? Do you still go to independence class?"

Before Nana could answer, You stormed in. He had a grave expression on his face, like he just returned from the doctor's and had received bad news.

"Are you okay?" their father asked.

"Haven't you heard? Hera just issued a new statement," You said, his voice panicked. He flicked on the tv. Nana glanced at her phone, and saw she had a new message from Hera. In the meantime, her feigned warm and friendly voice came from the tv.

 _[-ill be repeated._

 _From now on, it is forbidden to express any positivity towards or about the Pretty Cure. I understand their destruction of malfunctioning machines might seem benevolent, but know that this is purely propaganda. Destroying machines is their one goal, and isn't that against everything Clairewood stands for? The city of technology, of living hand in hand with our fellow persons; flesh and bones or metal and wire, it does not matter. The Pretty Cure fight against what makes Clairewood beautiful, and their actions must not be applauded._

 _Do not cheer them on while they are out wreaking havoc._

 _Do not film them._

 _Do not discuss them online, unless it is to spread the word about their misdeeds._

 _Be wary of their presence. When a Pretty Cure appears, it is best to leave the area immediately, as we do not know when they will turn against all of us. It is but a matter of time!_

 _This message will be repeated.]_

The clip of Static throwing Ellie into the Glitch was played again. _She's gotta find some new material, this clip is getting stale,_ Nana thought to herself. Her dad whistled. "That looks pretty bad," he said, nodding at the screen.

You shrugged. "It doesn't matter, Ellie's a robot, she rebuilt herself in less than a month. You're missing the real problem here!" He said, smacking his hand on the table. Her dad looked at his hand like it had just personally offended him. He raised an eyebrow and looked at his son with minor disbelief, like whatever You was going to say next couldn't possibly be as severe as he himself thought it was.

"Shuya and I just developed a line of robots based on the Precure. Months of planning, research, building, out of the window, just like that!" He made a gesture as if flipping a table.

"It's not that bad, we just have to rename them. Maybe repaint them. Then they could just be cat-themed robots," a sardonic voice said from the door opening. Shuya had appeared, his trusty laptop under his arm.

"That won't make us near as much as this Precure line would have! These girls are popular, they're topical, they're all everyone ever talks about. We'd be rich!"

"You've said that about several of our inventions, and we're still just 'Mori's from down the street'. Oh, dad, did you redecorate?" Shuya said with mild interest. You looked like he couldn't believe nobody was as upset as he was. He sat down on the couch and sat there for a while, stewing in his anger while aggressively tapping away on his phone, though by the time dinner was done he appeared to have calmed down a little.

"So we still have the internet, then? That's a surprise," their father said as they finished dinner.

"It's not really the internet," Shuya began. "The only accessible websites are Clairewood related, or any content on a website that's not from Clairewood is blocked off. It's really heavily censored."

"Of course," their dad shrugged. "Who will help me clean up?"

Whenever they discussed the situation of Clairewood, it'd be in small chunks of conversation. Their father did not want to talk about it for a long time. Nana was pretty sure it was because he was afraid of the docile program. Nana and the other Cures would just break him out of the Registration Office before Hera could do anything to him, but it's not like she could tell her father that. Instead, she tried another strategy to soothe his mind. As he was washing dishes, she sidled up to him.

"She can't read your mind, dad."

"I know, Nana. I know that."

And with that the conversation was done. Her father wasn't one to share how he felt unless explicitly asked, or how he really thought about things, if he argued it'd make him look weak. She was glad she and her brothers had not inherited his stoicness. She wasn't convinced her dad truly believed Hera couldn't get into his head, especially after he'd met Yon, a girl he'd known from before the isolation. Visibly he hadn't reacted much, but Nana could tell internally he probably felt even worse about it than she had when she'd first seen Yon again after "the program".

She mostly hoped he wouldn't try to take matters in his own hands. It was something she would do, and that was something she _had_ inherited from her father.

* * *

It was 5 am when Ellie finally decided to quit working on her song and go into sleep mode for the night. She had composed a song, the perfect song, and she had been so engrossed in working on it that she hadn't even noticed how much time had passed before she was done. She let her mother hear it, who couldn't really hide that she wasn't a big fan… But then her mother was an adult, so what did she know about real music anyway? Besides, she had confessed to not understanding the appeal of music.

Ellie wanted to share her song with the city, but she wasn't sure how. They must have grown tired of the music available to them now, like she had, so they'd be happy to have a new song to listen to, right? She could try sending it to people via her laptop, but if everyone suddenly got an email with a song attached they might think it's a virus. Her mother wasn't really a fan of using computers like that after the Luzia debacle, either. Maybe she could transform some speakers and plant them around the city… Yeah, that would work!

She could do it without using her Glitching powers. She'd done it before, with the machines at Saiko's dad's surgery.

As she was laying down, she pondered over her powers a little. That new power confused her a little. She knew how it worked, and what it could be used for, but she hadn't been able to use it in her old body… Though she had tried. When she had attempted to fix Gidget's broken leg, she accidentally Glitched her instead. But she was sure she should've been able to fix her like that… She glanced at the clock on her night stand.

 _Oh geez, I've only got a few hours to rest! I should really go into sleep mode, now._

She could think over her powers later.

* * *

" _Goooood morning Clairewood!"_

Nana awoke with a jolt. She clawed her way out of the sheets to her desk, knocking everything off it in a frantic search for her phone, and she'd already held it up to her wrist before realising something wasn't _quite_ right and stopping herself from abruptly transforming into Cure Spark.

"Why can I hear Ellie in my bedroom," she mumbled to herself.

" _It is currently 8 am and I think that's a good time for everyone to get up, because from what I've read most of you should've had 8 hours of sleep by now and if not you should go to bed earlier because I read it's bad for your health if you get less than 8 hours of sleep! Oh, but that's not why I woke you up."_

Nana looked at Bit, who had been knocked off the nightstand and who was now hovering in front of her window.

"What is she doing?" Nana squinted her eyes as Bit moved through the curtains in an attempt to look outside and filtered sunlight into her room while doing so.

"I don't see her," Bit declared after swiveling his face from right to left several times. "Where is her voice coming from?"

" _I have a new song for you all! Because Clairewood doesn't have access to the outside world I thought you must be getting pretty bored with the music available, so I composed a song myself! This is a world premiere! Oh, um, a city premiere I guess. Anyway, here it is!"_

Nothing happened.

Nana and Bit waited expectantly (with Bit still looking out the window), but all they got was silence. "Beautiful," Nana said sarcastically, and she got ready to go back to sleep.

"What are you doing!" Bit flew over to her and hovered in front of her face, his blue eyes angry triangles. "Ellie is up to something, you can't go back to sleep!"

"All she did was wake up the whole city with that pointless announcement. That's annoying, but I'm not gonna beat her up for that. It's sunday, I wanna go back to sleep for a little longe-"

Then it started.

The most ungodly garbled mess of noise that had ever assaulted Nana's ears filled the house, the streets, everywhere in the barrier it could reach.

Nana shrunk into a ball under her sheets, covering her ears, though it did little to block out the noise.

"Hey, that's not bad!" Bit declared.

"What do you mean 'that's not bad'?! That's the worst song I've ever heard! How the hell is she getting it to broadcast so loudly in here?"

As there was no point in trying to go back to sleep, Nana got up.

When she walked into the living room, she found her father and brothers looking out the windows.

"So this is what she does, huh," her dad observed loudly as she joined them.

They had a pretty good view of the city from their apartment, and Nana noticed something was off. Was that building there before…?

"What's that over there?" She pointed. What appeared to be a giant black obelisk stood in the place of what used to be an abandoned office building.

"We were wondering about that too," yelled Shuya. "I think it might be a speaker. She creates giant mechanical monsters, right? Who's to say she can't make speakers grow huge so we can all listen to her amazing musical talent."

Nana wondered if everyone was as unfazed by Ellie's shenanigans as her family was. She stifled a laugh as she imagined Saiko's family panicking at the sight of giant walking speakers.

Her phone buzzed. Rae sent her and the other Precure a photo that she took from her apartment. In it, a large part of the city was visible from her window. Nana noticed the black obelisks were scattered all over the city.

"They really are speakers," she whispered to herself.

 _[Rae: What do we do?]_

 _[Genevieve: Give her a pair of headphones lol]_

 _[Saiko: My parents are freaking out guys we need to stop this asap I can't take this for very long QAQ]_

 _[Nana: I guess all we can do is go out there and look for her. Maybe we can purify those speakers first]_

 _[Rae: Good plan]_

"I'm going to Yon," Nana declared to her family.

"This early?" Her dad raised a brow.

"Y-yes, I want to see if she's okay. Maybe the song is interfering with her brain implant thingy or something," Nana quickly made up, though she didn't find the story particularly convincing herself.

"She just lives a few blocks away, dad," Shuya shouted reassuringly.

"Yeah, I'll be back really soon!" Nana replied, and she put on her skates and left the house.

She never actually intended to go to Yon, but ended up running into her by accident. Yon was standing on the corner of her street, a few hundred meters from the apartment where she lived. She was standing completely still, with her eyes closed and her face tilted slightly towards the sky, a content expression on her face.

"Why are you outside?" Nana blurted out before she could think of a proper greeting.

"To appreciate the music," Yon smiled. Nana gave her a look like she'd just promptly turned into a canary. She threw a glance at one of the speakers, and then looked back to Yon.

"This sounds like music to you? Aren't you a musician yourself?"

"Yes," Yon replied enthusiastically, as if this was new information. "Maybe that's why I appreciate this more than you do," she said while pointing a finger up, as if to point at the music. "Personally I find the melody flows really well together with the vocals and the percussion," she continued wisely.

Nana gaped at her in awe for a few seconds, unable to think of a good reply.

"Oh, this is my favourite part!" Yon said, and she began humming. Her singing -as far as Nana could hear it over the blaring speakers- sounded nothing like Ellie's song.

"I think you need to get your implant checked," she said, and tapped her temple. The sudden meeting with Yon had stunned her so much, she'd completely forgotten why she was outside in the first place.

* * *

"Precure!" Ellie called as she was approached by three of the Cure team (the pink one was missing). She quickly got to her feet. "Why are you here?"

She had been lounging on the roof of a building near the center of Clairewood, admiring her handywork with the speakers. From where she sat it was relatively difficult to see people's reactions to her composition as she was too high up to make out people's faces, but she saw people stop every now and then to appreciate the music. Others covered their ears and hurried inside of buildings. This hurt her confidence a little, but she figured it made sense that not everyone would like her music; no human is the same, her mother had taught her.

But why had the Precure shown up? She hadn't made a Glitch, she wasn't destroying property or attacking people (she had decided for herself she'd never do that again. That was something the old Ellie did, not Frederika. Her outburst with the motorboat glitch had made her feel ashamed for many days afterwards, and she still felt great regret about it. She was better than that), she was just trying to share a thing she created in the hopes they would like it as much as she did.

It took a moment before the Precure said anything. It looked like each of them was waiting for the others to act, until the yellow one (Cure Circuit? Ellie hadn't seen her much yet) finally stepped up. "Ellie! Your music is disrupting the peace in the city. I demand you stop this right now!"

"We're Pretty Cure, not police officers. Ease on the authoritarian tone," Static said, standing a little ways behind Circuit.

"I didn't mean to disrupt the peace. I thought people should hear the new song I made," Ellie explained calmly.

"Oh, how nice of you!" Cure Volt said, with a smile on her face. She was holding something in her hands. Ellie had seen the device before; people would sometimes wear them on their heads. She figured they were to keep your ears warm, or something.

"I can't believe you actually brought a pair, I was just kidding," Static said to her.

"This isn't music as much as it is plain noise," Circuit continued. Ellie balled her fists.

"I know it's not for everyone, but that's mean!" She shouted.

"Don't make her mad," Volt said in a quivering voice, cowering behind Circuit.

"I'm not going to make a Glitch today!" Ellie shouted stomping her foot. "Gods, you Precure think that's all I do, don't you? I have a life too, you know! I go to school, I have hobbies, I like listening to music… Maybe you just don't appreciate my creativity! That's what my mom says!"

Static started laughing, earning her a jab in the ribs from Volt.

"S-Some people are stopping to listen to it, I saw it myself. They like it!" Ellie continued, somewhat discouraged by Static's laughing, though she couldn't figure out what she found so funny.

Circuit nodded. "I noticed. The only people who seem to like your 'music' are dociles. Maybe your mom is forcing them to like it."

"Oh! What if she's going to use it for mind control, or something?" Static called out.

"You're being really hard on her," Volt lamented.

"Man, for a team, you guys are really disjointed. Where's your leader anyway," Ellie replied. She was trying to keep from getting upset, which was hard as the Precure kept accusing her of things she didn't do _. They're such bullies._

As if on cue, a sound went off that sounded like a cross between an alarm and a mobile phone. Volt's gauntlet was flashing. She pressed the cat face on the front of it, and a little hologram appeared. It was really distorted; Ellie could barely make out that the hologram was of a person. The voice she did recognise, however. It was Cure Spark.

* * *

"Don't attack Ellie!" Nana called through her phone. She had hidden herself in Yon's bathroom, after finally having been able to convince her to go back inside. As she had closed the door behind her, she remembered why she went outside in the first place. She realised however that the other Cures most likely would have found Ellie already, and it'd be faster to call them about the information she discovered than scour through all of Clairewood trying to find them.

"I wasn't going to," Volt said, relieved.

"We're not going to save Clairewood by being Ellie's friend," Static whispered, annoyed.

"What do you propose we do," Circuit said. She and Static were barely visible on the edges of the transmission.

"I found Yon when I was outside, and she likes the music," Nana started explaining. "I think it's because she's a docile. Anyway, she hummed a melody for me and it didn't sound anything like what I'm hearing."

"I noticed that too. Dociles listening to the music, I mean," Static replied.

"It's not just Dociles," Nana continued. "Bit likes it too. He says it sounds like a properly constructed melody to him, with a beat and vocals and all that jazz. Anyway, to get to the point: Ellie doesn't hear what we're hearing. She hears a good song. She's being silly, broadcasting it across the entire city like this, but she's not being malicious. I propose we gently ask her to just… Get rid of the speakers, and listen to her music by herself."

"Are we heroes or are we babysitters," Static rolled her eyes. Volt on the other hand, seemed very content with the plan. She nodded resolutely, and told Nana goodbye as she hung up.

* * *

"Um, Ellie?" The Cures broke apart after huddling together for a bit to answer the call. Ellie didn't catch much of it. Volt was now slowly approaching her. She looked a little scared. _She always was the clumsy one,_ Ellie thought to herself.

"What is it? Are you going to attack me?" Ellie replied defensively.

"No, no! Not at all!" Volt quickly said. "There's been a bit of a misunderstanding, that's all. You see, this song that you made… Most people hear something different from what you are hearing. That's why they're running away and um, why we came here to ask you to stop."

Ellie frowned. "What do you mean, they're hearing something else?"

The fright in Volts voice grew a little. She held her fists up in front of her chest, as if to shield her heart from any of Ellie's retorts.

"Well, you're a robot, so you probably have a different way of perceiving sound than we do, I think…?"

 _Is she asking me?_ Ellie thought to herself. Whichever way you put it, this was a very awkward conversation. Static and Circuit were standing back a little, not interfering, though both of them looked like they had a lot to say and Volt wasn't saying anything of that.

Volt shook her head, as if to wave her previous question away.

"Anyway, what you and docile people and other AI hear is a really nice song, but we hear this." Volt started producing noises that sounded not unlike a wounded magpie crying for its mother. It sounded nothing like Ellie's song.

Ellie felt a wave of embarrassment hit her.

"That's what it sounds like to you? Really?" She looked at the other Cures, who nodded, apologetic expressions on their faces. "Oh no, oh no, oh no…" She kept murmuring a mantra of small 'oh no's as she walked to her laptop, which was sitting a little way behind her, hooked up to the speakers across the city. She pressed a button, and the music stopped.

"Oh, sweet silence!" Static called.

"Please don't feel bad," Volt said, fists still in front of her chest, "I know you meant well."

"Go away!" Ellie called. "I'm super embarrassed and I want to be alone. You'll only make it worse!" She grabbed her laptop and got up, holding it in her arms, still open. She looked at her composition. _I guess I'll have to listen to it at home then. I wish I could take it with me to other places somehow… But I don't want to bother people with the sound..._

"Hey Ellie," Static called.

Ellie threw her a furious look. She saw the shortest Cure was holding the device Volt was holding earlier. "Maybe try these in the future." She walked towards Ellie, holding the device out to her. Only now Ellie noticed it had a cable attached to it. Electric ear warmers, maybe?

"No thank you, I don't need it. And I'm not going to take anything from the likes of you," she spat at Static, who wasn't slowing down.

"No seriously, watch this," Static said. Before Ellie could do anything (mainly because she was still holding the laptop with both hands), Static had placed the device on her head.

"How dare you! Get it off, get it off!" Ellie protested. Within a second, Static had plugged it into her laptop. She pressed a button, and…

Music.

Ellie nearly dropped her laptop in surprise. Static said something, but Ellie couldn't hear it. She took part of the headphones off one ear, and Static repeated herself. "Isn't that much better?"

"No!" Ellie shouted. She walked to the edge of the building. "You just brought this thing to embarrass me even more, to rub it in that I made a big mistake! You guys are big bullies!" She scowled at them as she folded the laptop under her arm and put the headphones around her neck. "But I'm keeping these," she quickly added as she jumped off the side of the building.

* * *

Nana made it to the building just in time to see Ellie jump off the side. She fell five stories, looking as if her giant leap was nothing, and she landed on the street just a few metres away from Nana.

When she spotted Nana, her expression changed from anger to slight shock.

"Oh, hello Nana," she said, as she hurried away. Nana looked at her go. She looked back up at the building, and saw the other Cures standing at the edge of it.

The city had gone mercifully quiet again, the only sounds being the occasional bird singing its morning song. Nana spotted one of the giant speakers just a block away. _Guess she left those for us to clean up_ , she thought to herself.


	18. Chapter 18: The Forest

**18\. The forest**

He quietly listened for any movement coming from the bed next to the bed stand he was sitting on. When the quiet breathing confirmed to him that Nana was definitely asleep, he turned his eye display back on, making it possible for him to see again.

Nana had no idea Bit didn't really turn himself off every time she went to bed, but he didn't want to bother her (or any of the other Cures, really) with all the brooding he did over their situation when they were all asleep.

They were still collecting chips that made up small parts of his memory, but even he started to feel most of them contained very inconsequential information.

" _Ellie is a regular teenage girl."  
_ Well, obviously.  
 _"Hera wasn't made with ill intent."_  
So she went rogue; the fact that she wasn't initially meant to be an evil overlord didn't make her any less dangerous.

The most interesting recent revelation had come from Rae. Admittedly the chips had helped her form this deduction, but Bit still felt a little upset he didn't come to the conclusion himself, as now that he had further analyzed it a previous night, it seemed so obvious. Hera, Ellie and himself were all capable of doing magic, and it connected them in a way Bit never wanted. There simply wasn't any way in which he could comprehend it. How could two creatures so vile be so like him?

Had they been corrupted by an outside source? And if so, could the same happen to him? And who had corrupted them? Was it the same person who was responsible for their creation in the first place?

When he had first awoken, he had staunchly believed that he didn't have a creator at all, that he was a fairy and that that was it, but spending time with the Cures, seeing the robots around the city and especially seeing Ellie (and how familiar she somehow seemed) convinced him he was fooling himself. It was simply his programming that told him he was a fairy, just like how it had told him to find four girls who'd be the perfect Precure candidates, and give them the four bracelets he possessed that would grant them the powers of the legendary Precure.

...What was a 'Precure' anyway?

He'd never met one before, but he just knew what they were. These nights were the times where Bit hated his predicament, his entity being between robot and fairy. There were things he plainly knew to be correct because they'd been programmed into him, not because he had learned them like organic beings would, and this lack of an origin to the knowledge he had frustrated him to no end. The amount of times he had to tell his friends "I don't know" made him feel ashamed. Gogo had been the only one who'd had had enough guts to tell him this was annoying, the other girls being too intent on not hurting his feelings.

He also didn't quite understand how his magic worked. It was like an extension of his mind. It was what made it possible for him to get into Rae and Gogo's phones and create a projection of himself to speak to them on the night he escaped _that place,_ and how he knew Nana, Saiko, Gogo and Rae were the perfect people to become Precure in the first place. Like his code-based knowledge, the magic-based knowledge had no logic; he just knew what the right thing to do was. Just like how he occasionally remembered powers the Precure had, that he seemingly had forgotten before. Or maybe they just hadn't been strong enough to use it until a certain point, it could be that, too.

These were all things that Bit would spent entire nights thinking about, weaving possible scenarios and endless new strings of questions about the predicament he had found himself in. Sometimes he would share some of his worries with one of the Cures, but usually they'd be waved away, and he'd be reassured that they would take care of it. _We will defeat Hera_ , that was the resounding sentiment with all four girls (though Saiko seemed to become increasingly hesitant when it came to the subject of Ellie).

He didn't have the heart to tell them he had no idea how they would accomplish that. With his magical powers, he had inherited the knowledge of what Precure were supposed to do, and the structure of their growth. It essentially came down to this:

1\. A Cure's powers are awakened

2\. She learns how to protect her people (and potential others)

3\. She forms a team (optional, but generally the norm)

4\. They grow stronger

5\. An ultimate power is unlocked

6\. The evil is finally defeated, restoring peace

There were a few problems with this structure when it came to the situation in Clairewood. Up to step four everything went according to plan, but step five and six didn't sit right in Bit's mind.

He didn't know what his team's ultimate power was.

This also meant he hadn't the faintest idea how to unlock it. It might come to him like how their weapons suddenly came to his mind when the four girls had finally formed a proper team, but he wasn't sure. He concluded them becoming friends is what had triggered their ability to summon their weapons (step four), but what else could they do that would make them even more powerful? His memory told him with most Precures this power was unlocked by a strong burst of a certain feeling, such as hope, or love, of happiness. The Cures certainly didn't lack for the former, and the other two seemed to be relatively alright too. Maybe once they'd collected all of his chips it would activate? That seemed to make sense to him.

If only he knew how many chips were left.

Then there was step six: The defeat of 'the evil'.

The evil in Clairewood was Hera, there was no doubt about that. But she wasn't the evil Bit was built to fight against. He just knew this to be a fact. Was there some other evil they had completely ignored in favor of fighting this rogue AI? No way, he would've sensed it, like how he could sense Ellie's Glitches. But then again, he wasn't sure if he could sense the Glitches because they were evil or because they were made with one of his chips… Gah, why was there nothing that felt completely right and not out of the ordinary?!

Being a robot fairy was stressful, so very very stressful. Bit wondered if other fairies had the same problems he did.

He looked over to Nana, who was still sound asleep. She looked very peaceful. Bit felt relieved, he had been a little worried the stress of being a Precure would keep the girls up at night, but all four of them seemed capable of handling their new powers quite well. He felt very proud of them.

He wondered if there was something he could do. He looked at the window, which Nana had left open a little to let in fresh air. At this time of night, nobody will pay attention to a little drone flying around… Probably.

* * *

When he went outside, he noticed he wasn't the only robot around. Here and there he spotted the little dustbin policebots, and occasionally an actual drone would zoom by. He supposed it was safer to have them travel during the night, that way they couldn't bump into people or cause too much damage if they malfunctioned. He remembered the business district with its snow white drones who vaguely resembled him. Those drones were probably carrying things that were so important they couldn't wait a night to be sent over to the recipient.

As he was traveling along with no real destination in mind, he wondered if there was any significance to the business drones resembling him. They were made by Seyfert corp., like so many of the high-end machines in the city. But Bit had no recollection of being inside of the building during his current existence. Besides, if he had been built at Seyfert, wouldn't that mean Ellie and Hera would have been, as well? If that was the case, finding their creator shouldn't have been such an arduous task, with Gogo being the sibling of someone who worked at Seyfert they should've known who it was already.

Bit scanned the Seyfert website and databases for information and found nothing of particular interest. There was nothing about the creation of a shield-generating AI or a project to create a teenage robot girl. He found the design plans for the drones, but once again, nothing popped out to him. Maybe whoever built him nicked one of the drones and altered it to build him, that wasn't out of the question. Someone with an affinity for cats.

When he closed down all of the Seyfert information, he noticed he'd absentmindedly floated to the edge of the forest where he'd met Nana and Saiko that first night.  
Maybe if he retraced his steps…

It took him a little while to find the exact spot where he'd found the kittens. They hadn't been inside of the forest when he found them (in a box, with 'sorry' scrawled across it, as if that made the culprit's choice to abandon them instead of taking them to a shelter acceptable), rather on the edge, but he'd taken them further in so when Saiko would come to pick them up (he was the one who had called), they could talk in peace without anyone seeing them. At that time he didn't know how shy Saiko was, so he'd gotten a little disheartened when her first action upon seeing him was to bolt away with the kittens, ignoring anything he tried to tell her.

He looked around. Which direction had he come from…? He tried going several different ways, until he found one that somehow felt _right_. It took him deeper and deeper into the forest, until a vague image started forming in his head of his ultimate destination: The place he had fled from the day he had awoken. The problem with that image was that it was of a bunch of trees, one of them a particularly old and infected with blight, scarring the trunk in a rather unsightly manner. ...Did he fly out of a tree?

He reached his destination about an hour after entering the forest. He was facing a giant oak with many thick branches stretching in all directions. Some of the trees near it had grown in awkward shapes, trying to bend their way into the sunlight, of which the oak demanded so much.

A treehouse had been built in the tree. It was of a magnificent size and consisted of multiple rooms, starting on the ground, which made it almost look like someone had planted the tree inside of a house as opposed to building the house in the tree. The treehouse was completely dark, despite the Christmas lights that Bit could see were wrapped around it here and there. He glanced in through several of the windows, but whatever he could make out through the faint light his own display was emitting looked like it had been abandoned for quite some time, as the interior was covered in a layer of dust.

Had he really come from here? Then why didn't he recognise it? He went back to the ground, near the front door, and turned around. There was that blighted old tree he remembered, so he was definitely in the right place. Then why didn't he remember the treehouse?

He tried to collect his memories. The place he had woken up in was very dark, but every room of the treehouse appeared to have several windows in it. Did the treehouse have a shed, maybe? He flew around the tree once more, but he didn't see any other buildings beside the treehouse. He heaved a sigh and turned around to look at the treehouse once more. Just when he noticed something hidden between the gnarled roots of the old tree, a sudden feeling of dread overcame him. It was so strong, and so overpowering, he instantly felt he had to get away from the treehouse as fast as he could. And so he did.

He speeded through the forest, past the spot where he had met Saiko, the spot where he had bumped into Nana, back into the city and ultimately back into Nana's bedroom, where he finally came to rest on the bed stand next Nana, still sound asleep.

The feeling that had urged him to get out of the forest was one he had only felt once before: When he fled that exact same spot a few months ago. There was definitely something about that place, abandoned or not. He should tell the Precure as soon as they woke up.

…Or should he?  
Whatever was there screamed at him to stay away, so should he really lead the Precure down there…? What if it was a trap, and he'd lead them straight to Hera?

If he told them, even if he warned them not to go there, he knew they'd go. There was no question about it. He didn't want to withhold information from them, but he also didn't want them to needlessly endanger themselves…

But it was just a treehouse. Nothing had looked particularly technical about the place; if anything, the builder appeared to have been trying to get away from technology as far as possible, building their house so far inside of a forest.

He pondered a little more. If that really was the place he'd awoken, then that would mean Ellie had woken up there too. Was she still there…? But then why did the place look deserted? When he had taken a peek into the treehouse he'd seen a bedroom, but the sheets were neatly made and it didn't look like anyone had set foot in the room for quite some time. _Does Ellie even use a bed; she doesn't sleep… Does she?_

"...Bit?" Croaked a drowsy voice nearby.

Bit gave a start, nearly knocking Nana's phone off the stand.

"Why are you awake?" Nana asked, rubbing her eyes. Bit stared at her for a second without answering; the light of his display had woken her up, how could he have been so careless….

"I was… Thinking about stuff," Bit answered, not being able to come up with a better reply. He wasn't even sure if he was capable of lying.

"What kind of stuff? Pretty Cure stuff?" Nana said while stretching.

"It's nothing we can't talk about later, you should go back to sleep," Bit replied sternly.

Nana studied him for a moment with a raised eyebrow.

"Wait, why is there dirt on your face?"

Bit panicked. "I went outside! I went to the forest and then I hurried back here and I guess I got dirt on me when I was fleeing back here," he replied, unwillingly sharing way more information than he had intended.

Nana sat up. "What were you fleeing from? Should I get up?" She made a grab for her phone, but Bit quickly hovered over it so her fingers collided with his body.

"No! There's no danger. I fled because something inside me told me I should flee."

"In the forest? So you didn't see anything that scared you, then? Or did you get spooked by the eeriness of how dark the forest is at night?" Nana smirked.

Bit thought for a moment, then relented. "Please promise me you won't go there, okay?"

"Go where?"

"Promise me!" He flew within an inch of her face. "I don't want you guys to get hurt. Please take my advise on this, I really think you should stay away."

"Okay okay, I won't go there, calm down," Nana replied, gently shoving Bit away from her face. "Now please tell me what happened."

Bit told her about the treehouse in the forest, and the thing between the roots that had caused him to flee. At first Nana seemed to be at a loss at what could've caused this reaction in him like he himself had been, until she suddenly sharply gasped with widened eyes.

"What if that's where your inventor lives!" She said, poking him in the chest (or rather, the bit right below his display).

"Why would I flee from my inventor? To be honest, I'm still not completely convinced somebody built me."

"Because they made Ellie and Hera, too! And they can do magic!"

Nana grabbed Bit with both hands. "You did it, Bit, you've found the great evil we're supposed to defeat! You found Ellie and Hera's creator!" She let go of him and balled her fists in determination. "We should go there immediately."

Bit sighed. "Did you forget what I just told you…? It's too dangerous to go there. What if it's a trap, and Hera captures you? All hope for Clairewood will be lost!"

"Then what do you propose we do, wait? We've been waiting ever since we became Precure."

"Yes, and you're not strong enough yet to face whatever caused this! If you go there now, you'll be defeated for sure!" Nana recoiled slightly. She dropped her fists, and her shoulders a bit.

"We're not strong enough? How do you know?"

The determination had disappeared from her voice.

"I know the structure of the growth of a Pretty Cure. It's one of the basics that was programmed into me. And one of those stages is that you guys get an ultimate power, and you don't have that yet. So if this 'great evil' is in that treehouse, you're not ready to fight it yet."

Nana huffed. "What if it's just some guy."

"...What?"  
"What if it's just some guy in that treehouse, who made three robots for some stupid reason, and all we have to do is go there and beat the crud out of him to get rid of Hera. Then it'd be really stupid if we just sit here waiting on the off-chance that he's some evil all powerful being we can't handle yet." She crossed her arms defiantly.

"Nana, I thought we established that whoever's behind this can do magic," Bit retorted. Once again Nana dropped her arms. "Oh yeah, I forgot about that…" She sighed. "Fine. I guess we'll wait. How do we unlock this ultimate power?"

Now it was Bit's face that fell (or rather, his eyes went from angry to upset). "I-"

"-don't know," Nana finished for him. She sighed. "Should we keep fighting Glitches, would that help? Maybe it's like a gauge, if we reach a certain amount we'll gain this power?"

"From what I know of Pretty Cure, it's usually tied to a feeling. Like love, or hope, or friendship. But that's all I know, which isn't much to go on…"

Nana thought for a moment. "What if we ask Rae? She has some knowledge of a previous Precure team, doesn't she? Maybe she'll know."

"She might," Bit said hesitantly, "but I'm not sure if it'll be so useful. This isn't the Pretty Cure scenario I was built for, so I'm not sure your powers work the same way other Cure's powers work. For all I know, it really might be as simple as fighting Glitches until we've got all my chips back. But I don't know how many I'm still missing, so I don't know how long that'll take."

"Don't worry about it, Bit," Nana said with a reassured smile as she pet Bit on the head. "We'll think of something. We'll definitely get out of here!" Bit gave her a smile.

It wasn't a confident smile, but he wasn't expressive enough for Nana to be able to see that.

* * *

"We are the Precure, and we're here to fight you!"  
"But I'm just having a picnic!"  
"We don't care, you're stupid and we're going to ruin your day anyway! Rahhh!"

"Darling, what are you doing?"  
Ellie put down the figurines she was playing with. "I'm just having a little fun, mom. I got these figures from this old shopkeeper from the city, because you put a ban on Pretty Cure stuff he couldn't sell them anymore, so he gifted them to me. Isn't that nice?"  
"...Very nice."

Ellie sighed, while looking upon the six figures she now owned: Two of her (the prototype and a new, finished model) and four of the Precure. Gidget was sitting among them, playing the role of a Glitch Ellie was having a picnic with in her game of make-believe.

"They do have cool costumes, don't you think mom?" She picked up the figure of Cure Spark and examined it closer. "They've got these cute little cat faces on their chest, and their armor has this beautiful gleam to it. I kinda wish I had a costume like that."

"What's wrong with your own clothes?"

Ellie blinked. Her mother's voice had lost a bit of its sweetness in that remark. She'd never had her speak to her like that before.

"I think your sense of fashion is great. It looks a lot nicer than those weird unicolour uniforms those four wear," her mother continued. The sweetness had returned, to Ellie's relief.

"If you want more clothes with cats, you could buy them in the shops! There's plenty. Or you could make some yourself, as a new creative project! Like that lovely song you created."

Ellie studied the figures some more. "Yes, but… My clothes don't look like the characters in some of the books I read. Look." She got up and rummaged through her bookcase and pulled out a small novel with a very colourful cover. She pointed at the characters on the cover.  
"They fight monsters and they can do magic, and they all wear these cool outfits that match each other, like the Precure. And people love them! Don't you think people will like me better if I dress like them, mom?" She took a deep breath, and continued: "Like a hero?"

"I don't know, darling. We don't want to give people the wrong idea, with you dressing like a Precure…"

Ellie rolled her eyes and tossed the book away. "Forget about it. It was a stupid idea, anyway."

"Now now, don't pout! You're not a child, dear, come on, cheer up. Now what is the name of the shop that gave you those figures?"


	19. Chapter 19: Ellie's Dilemma

**Chapter 19: Ellie's Dilemma**

"Ultimate powers?" Saiko frowned at Nana, who'd just explained everything Bit told her last night to her. They were sitting on a bus that was buzzing with noise, so they could talk relatively freely while their classmates chatted, yelled and threw things back and forth between the seats (to the chagrin of the teachers that had come along as guides).

"Yes, but he doesn't know how we could unlock them. Something about love or friendship. I figured maybe it might unlock once we all become best friends!" Saiko grimaced at her idea.

"That'd be great but considering we've got school and we don't see half the team unless we've got a Precure mission it might be really tough… Also, I think we're already pretty good friends. I'm not sure if we could get much closer."

Nana sighed.

"You've got a point. Maybe one of us needs to sacrifice herself for the others?"

Saiko gasped and gave Nana an almost offended look. "What, like a blood sacrifice? Bit wouldn't be that cruel!" She instinctively put a protective hand on Nana's bag, quickly retracting it when she remembered Bit wasn't in his usual hiding spot, being with Rae today as Ellie would be on the trip with them.

"No, I mean protecting the others from an enemy, you know, stepping into the way of danger so the others won't be hurt?"

Saiko thought for a moment. "I think that's already happened. I can't think of a specific situation right now, but doing stuff like that is something you do even when you're not Cure Spark," she said.

Nana crossed her arms, sank low in her seat and turned away from Saiko. "Fine, if you've got any ideas I'm all ears."

She saw Saiko's apologetic smile reflected in the window. "S-sorry…"

They were on their way to the amusement park. This trip was an annual event, and usually would take the students of Clairewood outside of the city, but this year the schools options had been very limited thanks to a certain AI overlord, so they'd chosen to go to Space Zone, the local amusement park. Despite what the name implied, the park had little to do with space aside from the main attraction, a giant steel roller coaster called The Enterprise.

Nana had been to the park several times, but it had been a few years, so it was exciting to go again, though the excitement was somewhat dampened by the addition of Hera to Clairewood. She wondered if Hera had made any changes to the park. _All these roller coasters and high-intensity rides would surely be very dangerous for us vulnerable, squishy humans_ , she thought sardonically.

"Will you ride The Enterprise?" She turned her head to look at Saiko. She gave a curt, determined nod, her eyes serious.

"I'm going to face my fears and finally ride it, after years of avoiding it. If I can fight giant robot monsters, I can handle riding a scary roller coaster, too!" she said, clenching her hands into fists in front of her. Nana gave her a smile.

"Cool! We should think of a good pose for the picture."

Saiko hesitated for a moment before speaking again. "Do you think Ellie will ride it with us?"

Nana shrugged.

"I figure. I don't see why she wouldn't, she's part of our group, after all."

The day before they went, they had been assigned with the task of making a group to walk around the park with. The group had to consist of at least three people, with one of them as the 'leader' of the group, having the responsibility of contacting one of the teachers that acted as guides in case anything was wrong. Nana accepted this responsibility as if it was natural to her, and of course Saiko was the first member of her group… Which immediately faced them with a problem.

It felt a little painful to be confronted with, but most of the cliques in their class were quite a bit bigger than theirs was. They had more friends than just each other, but they were in different classes, or had been outside of Clairewood when The Isolation happened.

Then there was also the question of what to do with Ellie.

It might be difficult to keep an eye on her if they were part of a group that could absolutely not be allowed to know their secret identities, and if Ellie was in their group, they could keep an eye on her but accidentally saying one word too many might give them away and ruin any changes of ever liberating Clairewood.

Still, Saiko was in favor of the idea of letting Ellie into their group. It'd make them a group of three and Ellie considered them friends; maybe they could make her change her mind on the Pretty Cure without her finding out who they were!

They didn't get much time to deliberate however, as after ten minutes their teacher called out to check if everyone had managed to make a group. When it became clear Nana and Saiko and another duo were the only ones who had failed, the teacher naturally put them together.

The other duo consisted of Ellie (what a surprise) and Ezra, a boy of Nana's height with short, black hair and green eyes. Nana had spied him sitting with Ellie during lunch sometimes, awkwardly trying to make conversation with her. _If he'd stop walking on eggshells around her, maybe they'd actually become friends_ , Nana thought. Ellie seemed to appreciate his companionship nonetheless.

"Hey, my mom made cookies for the trip, do you want any?"

A pair of eyes appeared above Nana's seat, quickly joined by a plastic bag full of what appeared to be chocolate-chip cookies.

"Oh, thank you Ezra," Nana said as she took the bag from him.

"Do you want one," she asked Saiko, who had turned a little red and pretended she didn't notice Ezra addressing them. Saiko had become braver and braver every day since that fateful day Nana bumped into Bit, but boys were like a whole different beast to her, it seemed. Nana didn't quite get it, and Saiko's inability to explain it beyond "they are so different" didn't help much, but she figured it was one of those things Saiko would overcome with time. Saiko quickly took a cookie from the bag.

"Please take as many as you like. Mum made enough for five people, but since there's only four of us and one of us doesn't eat we don't have to be careful with them. No offense, Ellie," he quickly added.

"None taken," Ellie replied. She joined Ezra, poking her head and the tips of her fingers over Saiko's seat. "What is 'eating' like anyway? Mom's tried to explain it to me but I don't think she understands it herself so her explanation didn't make a lot of sense."

"Uh, its when you bite into food and you move your jaws to break it up. That's called chewing, actually, and-" Ezra began, but Ellie broke him off.

"I know that, that's what mom says, too. I didn't literally mean the actions, I mean like… The experience. Because I heard there's people who really enjoy eating but I've never heard someone say: 'Boy, I sure love breathing. I sure love hydrating my eyes.' What's so special about eating?"

"It tastes good," Nana said, absentmindedly chewing on the cookie.

"What's taste?" Ellie said, grabbing the headrest a little tighter and leaning over the chair a little further.

"It's a combination of senses from your tongue and your nose, I think," Ezra began.

"It's when you eat food and it's good. It makes you feel happy," Nana interjected.

Saiko looked from her to Ellie with uncertainty.

"Eating makes you happy. I see," Ellie said, staring off into the distance. She sat back down in her chair.

"Why didn't you say so, Ezra?" Nana heard her ask.

"Well, I didn't know you wanted such a… pragmatic answer," he spluttered.

* * *

After the guides had made sure everyone had found their groups and knew what to do in case of an emergency, they were set free inside of the park. Nana spotted Gogo with a group of third-years, and gave her a quick wave, which Gogo answered with a smile and a nod. Other than that, the three Cures would not be interacting much today. That was the plan, anyway.

Ezra studied the map while Ellie leaned over his shoulder, looking both excited and dumbfounded at the same time.

"What's this," she said while pointing at a miniature representation of an attraction on the map. When she touched it, the map changed to show a close-up of the attraction and additional information.

"It's the Whirlpool, it's a log flume ride. Do you know what that is?" He asked, his voice raising in pitch and lowering in volume with every word he uttered in the last sentence.

"No, I actually didn't really research amusement parks," Ellie admitted, oblivious to Ezra's nervous demeanor.

"Oh good," he sighed in relief. "It's this ride where you sit in this big log of wood, and it goes down a big slope of water, kind of like a water slide. Do you know what a water slide is?" He asked, in the same weird pitchy way.

Nana nudged him. "This isn't an episode of Dora the Explorer, Ellie can figure things out on her own. Also no need to be so high-strung, you'll be fine," she added with a smile.

"But I like having stuff explained by him!" Ellie exclaimed. "I like having stuff explained by anyone. Learning things the normal way makes me happy," she said cheerfully.

This seemed to give Ezra some confidence, and he explained several rides to Ellie without his usual nervous demeanor. As he was doing so, Nana and Saiko trailed behind them.

"Isn't that nice," Saiko said. Nana looked at her. "Ellie's made a friend. I'm glad people aren't treating her badly despite some of the things she's done. She's really being given a chance at being good!"

"Yes, but I'm not sure that means she'll be fine with us fighting her mother when it finally comes to it, if I'm honest," Nana replied.

"She might!" Saiko replied determinedly. "Bit told us she was built later than Hera, maybe she is smarter than her, too. She might just not realise it yet. Please have hope," she added more quietly. Nana's face fell a little.

"We might have to fight her, Saiko. You know that."

Saiko looked away.

"Please have hope," she repeated.

* * *

"This place looks spooky," Ellie exclaimed excitedly when they'd come to a halt in front of a giant mansion with a graveyard in front of it. Some of the headstones moved, and there were actors dressed as ghastly looking Victorian zombies walking around the gardens, looking lost, and occasionally lunging at a park visitor to frighten them.

"It's a haunted mansion," Ezra mentioned, "remember, from the map?" He turned the map around so Ellie could see it. Bats were flying around it now, and the time had changed from day to night.

"It's actually kind of like a rollercoaster," Saiko began, "you get into a cart and then you ride around the house while things pop out in front of you to scare you."

"We rode it a billion times when we were kids," Nana jumped in, "we know every single scare inside. But it could be fun if you never rode it before!"  
Ellie looked at the mansion with knitted brows. "It certainly looks pretty scary. I don't know what those people are doing," she gestured at the actors, "but the house just has an atmosphere around it that makes me feel… unsettled." She shivered. Nana briefly wondered how. A shiver out of dread was different from a shiver out of cold (which Ellie couldn't feel), she figured.

"Oh yeah, I guess you've never heard of zombies or ghosts or scary stuff like that, have you, Ellie?" Ezra asked as he put away the map.

"Oh, I have, I read about them. But they're just dead people and also not real, so I don't see what the big deal is," she shrugged. She looked at the house again.

"But something just makes me scared but also want to go into that house…"

She started walking into the line without waiting for the others, who apprehensively followed her.

"Did you hear that?" Nana whispered to Saiko as Ellie was talking to Ezra in front of them, " _'They're just dead people'_. _Just_ dead people!"

"Yes, I heard it. I think she meant that dead people aren't scary to her. She's a robot, so that's probably not that strange." Nana couldn't believe her ears, and judging from Saiko's reaction, it was visible on her face.

"She's not heartless, if that's what you're trying to say! She saved a cat's life, remember? Would she do that if she thinks life has no value?"

Nana didn't have a retort for that, so she just grumbled.

When one of the zombies tried to lunge at Saiko, Ellie jumped in front of her and pushed the actor so hard, he fell down. For a second he broke character, his eyes going wide in surprise. Nana couldn't tell if this was because he got pushed or because of who (or rather, _what_ ) pushed him.

"Don't do that to her, she's sensitive!" Ellie shouted at him.

"E-Ellie, that's an actor, he's just doing his job," Ezra stammered, putting a hand on her shoulder. She shook it off.

"He could've gone for someone else. But he picked the person he knew he could scare. That's so mean! Are you okay, Saiko?"

Saiko jumped a little. She and Nana might have ridden the actual ride many times when they were kids, but the zombie actors were a newer addition and they did make her feel visibly unnerved. "Yes, I'm fine. Thanks," she answered in a small voice as Nana and Ezra helped the actor back up (who had reverted to his groaning and shambling zombie ways).

"You shouldn't have pushed him," Nana said as they walked into the mansion.

"He had it coming!" Ellie bit back.

"Yes, well, maybe he did, but we could get thrown out of the park for assault if you keep doing that," Nana explained. Ezra, who was walking on the other side of Ellie while Saiko trailed behind them, nodded in agreement.

"Oh, I didn't know that," Ellie said, sounding a little embarrassed. "Mom did tell me I shouldn't hurt people, because I don't know my own strength and you're vulnerable. I guess I forgot that in that moment." She cast her eyes to the floor.

"Oh, we're up!" Ezra exclaimed as a cart rolled in for them to ride, trying to distract Ellie from her remorse.

* * *

The mansion was fun. Not so much the actual ride, of which Nana and Saiko remembered every scare and noise, but more Ellie and Ezra's reactions to them.

Right before the ride started, Ezra told Ellie "don't punch anything," which immediately started a fit of laughter in Nana.

"I won't!" Ellie said, scowling at Ezra, though it was quite clear she took his comment in jest and wasn't actually upset.

Ezra wasn't immune to the ride's tricks and jumped occasionally, letting out a rather unmanly shriek at a particularly nasty scare. Ellie in the meantime kept asking him what was so scary, offered to punch things for him despite his plea not to, and complained how it made no sense humans enjoyed doing things that frightened them.

The picture that was taken of them during the ride was so good, Nana decided to buy a copy of it, despite the ridiculously high price of it. She gave the spare photo to Saiko, who in turn offered it to Ellie.

"It'll be a nice memory," she said as she handed her the picture with a smile.

"Yes, very nice," Ezra grumbled. The photo depicted Nana and Saiko having the time of their lives, laughing, with their hands up in the air, while Ezra had an expression of horror on his face, his face completely void of colour. Ellie, who was sat next to him, sad slumped down with her arms crossed. She looked both bored and confused at the same time.

"When it did that flashing light thing I got kinda scared because it messed with my systems, but the rest was just silly," Ellie said as they walked out of the mansion.

"That was the photo-op," Saiko said with light concern in her voice. "Most rides have that, actually… Do you think you'll be okay?"

Ellie thought for a moment. "I'll probably be okay as long as it's not prolonged exposure. I can handle a split second of flashing, so I think I should be fine. Otherwise you can just reset me!"

Ellie had a big smile on her face, as if she wanted to demonstrate to them how they could get rid of her. _That'd actually be really useful_ , Nana thought to herself. _Maybe Shuya and You can rewire her so she can be a normal schoolgirl without all that devastating-monster-creation-stuff._

After a few seconds, when Ellie still hadn't followed up on her statement, Ezra reluctantly asked how exactly they would reset her. Ellie's smile disappeared and was replaced with a puzzled look.

"I… Don't know. I think I can be reset, and I think I know how, but… I can't remember… This keeps happening more and more lately," she added, frowning.

"Maybe it's a switch somewhere," she said, and she promptly took off her shoe and hopped around while trying to peel off her sock. Nana quickly stopped her.

"If you do that, I can _guarantee_ we're going to get kicked out of the park!"

* * *

They explored the park for a while without riding any rides, stopping at a stand to buy some candy. Ezra briefly sent Ellie into an existential crisis when she expressed the desire to try a candy cane and not being able to answer his question of where the food would go considering she didn't have a digestive system.

"This is like a really weird biology class," Nana whispered to Saiko in exasperation.

"Maybe there's plans of how you were built, and you could find out," Ezra said in an attempt to calm Ellie down.

"There are, and mom won't let me see them," she huffed. "She thinks I'm going to try to change myself and she's all like 'oh Ellie, dear, you are perfect, don't change yourself, this is a normal thing teenagers go through blah blah blah…'"

"I see," Ezra said. "That kinda sucks. I mean, you won't grow up anyway, right? If she let you change your design, maybe you could grow up with the rest of us!"

Ezra had grown a lot bolder in the time they had spent together in the park. Seeing how comfortable Ellie was around Saiko and Nana seemed to have given him some courage to let loose a little. Occasionally this would make Nana worry, as, like with this remark, he'd take it a little far for her taste sometimes, but so far Ellie hadn't seemed to mind. It was odd to think this girl was the same one who blew up at a girl for explaining third-year reading to her only a few months ago.

Ellie simply shrugged. "Yeah, maybe in a few years or so, when I graduate. She has to learn I'm not a little girl and I'm not gonna be a teenager forever."

Nana looked over to Saiko, whose gaze had been fixed on the flowerbed in front of them during the entirety of their break. More specifically, she was looking at the enormous steel beam planted right in the middle of the flowerbed. She swallowed.

"It looks pretty intimidating like that, doesn't it," said Nana, nodding at The Enterprise's support beam.

Saiko nodded. "It's easy to forget how big a rollercoaster is if you haven't seen it in a while," she said, without taking her eyes off it. Nana put a hand on her shoulder.

"You can do it. The scariest part is going up, after that, the ride is over in a few seconds. You can barely even tell you're upside down for a bit!" She flashed Saiko a big grin, which she returned with a small, insecure smile.

"Well then," Nana continued as she got up. "Let's get this over with. To The Enterprise!"

* * *

"Here we are, the parks main attraction. Look, it's got three loops and a corkscrew!" Ezra held the map out to Ellie, who studied it intently. After a moment, she looked up at the roller coaster itself. They were standing in line, and it wouldn't be long until they'd get on. Saiko was visibly shaking and holding Nana's arm for support. Nana had offered to leave the line with her several times, saying they could try again some other time, that Saiko had nothing to prove, but she kept insisting she'd ride it this time, and couldn't be convinced otherwise.

"It looks dangerous," Ellie noted.

"Yes but it's safe, really!" Saiko called out reassuringly, more to herself than to Ellie.

"I'm not worried about myself, but you guys."

"Don't worry, we don't build things that kill people. That's not generally on our list of things to do for fun."

"Not on purpose, anyway," Saiko muttered to the floor.

As they got closer, they were greeted by a group of third years leaving The Enterprise. Gogo was among them.

"How was it?" Saiko asked. Gogo frowned.

"It was fun, but we sat at the boarding platform for ten minutes because they couldn't get it to start. The Enterprise has been having technical difficulties all day, apparently."

"Oh, well, that doesn't sound too serious," Nana said in a strained voice as Saiko squeezed her arm to a pulp.

Gogo shrugged. "Yeah, I guess if it's just got issues at the start you'll probably be fine. I'm sure they wouldn't keep the ride open if they actually thought it got dangerous. I'm gonna go have a snack with my friends nearby, so you can wave at us while you're on it." She sounded cheerful, but had a completely serious expression on her face as she stared Nana down. Nana understood what she meant, and gave Gogo a small nod. Technical difficulties on a roller coaster might not be a Pretty Cure problem to solve, but with Ellie on the ride, who knows what could happen.

"I can't believe I'm actually doing this," Saiko said as they got into the coaster, after depositing their bags (including their phones) in the wooden crates on the boarding platform.

"I can't believe my arm isn't broken," Nana grumbled as she sat down next to her, rubbing her arm. The moment she'd taken her place, Saiko grabbed it again.

"Sorry, but you can't hold it right now," Nana said, trying really hard to hide her relief, "the security bars won't allow it. See?" She pulled hers down, and Saiko followed suit, looking slightly dejected. The bars gave a loud click to indicate they were properly secured, but Saiko gave hers a few extra tugs just to be sure.

"I love this ride," she heard Ezra say to Ellie, in front of them. Ellie was just as excited as Ezra, as she had no idea what being in a roller coaster was going to be like; because of its intensity she was quite sure it'd be fun even for her.

Unlike when Gogo and her friends had been on it, this time the train left the station as normal and slowly started making its ascend to its highest point.

"Wow, this is actually kind of weird," Ellie noted as they were practically lying down in their seats as the train got pulled higher and higher. "Sitting like this feels very unnatural."

"Just wait until we get to the top!" Ezra shouted. "We're gonna go super fast, inhumanly fast, even for you!"

Nana felt butterflies in the pit of her stomach.

"This isn't so bad, right," she asked Saiko while she tried to spot Gogo on the ground.

"I want to get off," a small voice answered.

"You'll be okay," Nana said as she turned around to face Saiko, who'd gone completely white.

"This was a mistake," Saiko continued in the same quiet, high voice.

"I told you, the climb is the worst part. Once we go down, the adrenaline will take over and it'll be super cool! Just like fighting Glitches," she reassured her.

The train reached the top, slightly went over, giving Nana and her friends a good look at the long, long way down they were about to experience in the span of a second, and…

The train halted with a loud _clang_.

The noise sent Saiko into a fit of intelligible whimpers, as she squirmed in her seat and tears started to well up in her eyes.

"Is it supposed to stop?" Ellie asked Ezra. People behind them had started to get suspicious too, and Saiko wasn't the only one panicking (though by far the loudest).

"Stay calm, help has arrived!" Nana turned to look at source of that familiar voice. Cure Static was hovering next to the train.

"THE TRAIN HAS BEEN GLITCHED!" Somebody shrieked from the back of the train.

"It hasn't!" Ellie retorted angrily. "My Glitches are a lot more impressive than this," she pouted, completely unfazed by their current predicament.

"The train is fine," Static reassured them. "Well, its kinda broken, but it's not trying to attack you guys so it could be worse! Anyway, let's get you out of here." Static moved to the middle of the train and started pulling at the bottom of the middle cart. When Nana realised what she was trying to do, she turned her head so fast she cricked her neck.

"Don't lift it off the tracks! What if you drop it? It's too long for one person to carry!"

"I hadn't considered that," Static's voice came from under the train. She flew back up to their level, her arms in her sides as she tried to think. Shouting came from below. An attendant tried to get Static's attention. She briefly left to talk to the attendant, then returned.

"I've just learned that in cases like this, they'll unload the train. But uh, the security bars are stuck, so you can't get out by normal means. Good thing I've got super strength!" She laughed and started breaking loose the bars at the back of the train, and helping the riders get out.

People calmed down now that they knew they were safe, reassured by a Cure's presence. Saiko had stopped whimpering, though tears were still streaming down her face.

Ellie broke her own security bar and climbed out of the carriage. She stood on the rails beside the train and looked at Static work.

"Maybe you can help her," Ezra noted. "I gotta admit, hanging right over the edge is starting to get to me a little."

Ellie shook her head. "No, she's a Precure. I'm not going to help her. And I'm not letting her 'help' me either. Knowing her, she's just gonna rub it in my face that I got stuck on a rollercoaster, anyway."

"It'd be a really good way to let people know you're a good person."

Ellie shifted her gaze to Nana, her eyebrows rising.

"You're really strong. I saw it when you jumped off that building last week and you didn't have a scratch on you. Why not use this opportunity to show people how nice you really are?"

Ellie blinked. "You don't get it. I can't help a Cure. They killed me. _She_ killed me!" She pointed at Static, who was too occupied with helping people to safety to notice.

"What about us?" Nana continued. "We're your friends. Don't you want to help us?"

Ellie was getting distraught. Her eyes flicked between Nana, Static, and Ezra.

"She… She can handle it. She wouldn't want my help. You'll be okay! I can't help a Precure!"

She reiterated.

Suddenly, the security bars popped loose.

Ellie breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh good, now you guys can-"

Another loud _clang_. The train started moving again. Saiko shrieked as she quickly grabbed at the security bar and tried to push it down again, but it wouldn't click.

The train was gaining momentum as it made its way down the slope, making it harder and harder to keep the loose security bars down. Then they came to a sudden halt, which threw everyone forward in their seat. Ezra was nearly flung onto the front of the train. Only his legs were still inside of the carriage. He scrambled back into his seat, digging his nails into the security bar and frantically looking around for help.

"Hold on!" Static shouted.

She had grabbed the end of the train, which was now about three quarters empty.

"You should've started evacuating at the front!" A man yelled at her.

"Why didn't you say that earlier," Static shouted back, exasperated.

"Are you guys okay," A voice came from the front of the train.

Ellie was standing on the tracks, her body seemingly defying gravity to stay upright and stop the train from moving forward. The front carriage's nose had giant dents in it where she had slammed down her hands to stop it. She was staring down at it, determined not to let it go any further.

"You saved us!" Ezra called out. Ellie nodded slowly, as if she wasn't quite sure what just happened herself.

"O-okay, if you push the front, I'll pull the back and we can bring it back to the top, so we can get the people out properly," Static called. Ellie gave a shout of agreement, and working together, they managed to get Saiko, Ezra, and Nana, the last three passengers, off the train.

* * *

As expected, Cure Static disappeared as quickly as she had appeared.

"I am never riding a rollercoaster again, for the rest of my life," Saiko vowed.

"That was super cool," Ezra said to Ellie. "How did you do that? The way you stood on those tracks and held the train… That was unreal!"

Ellie gave him a small smile, and shrugged. "I don't know. But I couldn't let you fall, right? Even if it meant working together with one of _them_."

Ezra cocked a brow. "What's wrong? You don't seem happy about it at all."

Ellie just shook her head.

"Are you afraid your mother won't approve?" Nana asked, when Ezra didn't.

"Nana," Saiko whispered, but Nana stood firm as she looked Ellie in the eyes.

"I'm not sure how I feel," Ellie replied. "I don't want to talk about it. Maybe later. We still have lots of time left in the park, right? We should use it."

"Are you sure?" Ezra asked. _Please just drop it_ , Nana thought, fearful Ellie would get upset. But she didn't. Ellie nodded again. Ezra opened his arms and smiled,but Ellie just gave him a confused stare.

"What are you doing?"

Ezra put his arms down and blushed. "I thought maybe you could use a hug, because you seem so sad. You know, to let you know I'm there for you. Uh, but I understand if you don't want it. Maybe it was inappropriate to assume," he mumbled.

Ellie looked confused, but held out her arms and spread them, like Ezra had. "Now I'm curious," she said. "Show me a hug."

Saiko chuckled as Ezra walked over and put his arms around Ellie (she asked him after a moment if she should do the same).

They stood there for a few moments.

"You are warm," Ezra said.

"It's because of the sun," Ellie responded.

"So this is how you show someone compassion, huh," she said as he let go, as if they were doing an experiment for class.

"Well, hugs feel nice, usually, they can help you relax." Ezra said, scratching his cheek, his eyes screwed up to the sky. "But maybe that doesn't translate well if you're made of metal."

"Their interactions are really awkward," Nana whispered to Saiko.

"I get it, though," Saiko replied. "She's pretty different from us, isn't she? I can't even interact with regular people without getting awkward."

"I think he has a crush on her."

"Nana!"

* * *

The Enterprise was shut down after that, in part because of the technical difficulties they'd been experiencing all day, and in part because one of the two trains was now unusable seeing as Ellie had wrecked the front. Nana tried to have a good time at the park after that, but her thoughts were clouded by the incident for the rest of the day.

Maybe she'd been wrong, and Saiko had been right. Maybe they could convince Ellie to join them, and maybe even stop Hera. She felt more conflicted than ever before.

* * *

As Ellie made her way down into her home, she felt a sense of dread growing stronger with every step.

"Welcome home, darling! How was your day at the amusement park? Did you have fun with your friends?" Hera sounded as warm and loving as ever. It made it even harder on Ellie to ask her the questions she'd been mulling over in her mind since the incident on The Enterprise.

"It was fun. I had a lot of new, um, experiences." She wasn't really sure where to look, as her mother was a disembodied voice inside of their house (it appeared she didn't feel the need to pretend to be an old-fashioned housewife at home where no humans could see) so there were no eyes to look into, or to avoid.

"You… You saw it all, right? I know you can see the whole city."

"Yes! I bet you made some friends for life today, dear. You saved those people! I'm so proud of you. It just shows how much more capable machines are than humans. That Precure nearly got people killed with her incompetence."  
Ellie listened to her mother rave on about her greatness and the idiocy of the Pretty Cure without saying a word.

"Tomorrow, I shall show your schoolmates your brave act from today. I recorded it! I think they should all know how amazing you are."  
"Mom, please, that'd be really embarrassing," Ellie stammered. She fidgeted with the cuff of her sleeve as she gathered her nerves. "A-also… I don't think the Pretty Cure are evil."

"What was that?"

Ellie knew her mother had heard her loud and clear; she was pretty certain it was virtually impossible for Hera to mishear something, let alone inside her own house.

"I don't think they are evil. I don't think the Pretty Cure are bad. I think you are wrong about them!" She balled her fists as she looked up at the ceiling in defiance, her voice growing in volume with every sentence.

"Is it because you helped one of them today? If anything, that shows how much Clairewood doesn't need-"

"Clairewood _does_ need them! All they want to do is protect people. They're not trying to ruin my fun, they're trying to keep everyone _safe_. From anything. Not just me!" She hurried over to her room, and grabbed the pair of headphones resting on her bed. She held them up to the ceiling.

"They gave me this when I made that song. That way I can listen to my own music. I didn't know it sounded bad to humans, but they told me, and showed me a way I could keep listening to it without bothering anyone. They didn't hurt me. I mean, I felt embarrassed, and a little angry, but I got over that."

"Did you forget one of them threw you into a garbage compactor?"

Ellie put the headphones back down. "I was a menace to the people! It's a miracle no one ever got hurt when I made a Glitch. And I'm here now, right? I didn't die! I _can't_ die!"

"That machine completely destroyed your old body. The only reason you are here is because I collected you and put you back together. You are a victim of their actions, Ellie. You're worrying me with the things you are saying!"

"Death is when a living creature stops moving forever. It's when their being leaves their body, and never comes back. I wasn't dead!"

"Who told you that? That's how it works for-"

"My friend did!" Ellie stomped her foot. "I'm learning from my friends and other people everyday, and it's opening my eyes more and more. I can draw my own conclusions and form my own opinions now, and my opinion is that the Precure aren't evil! Why can't you see that, mom? They've done so much good!"

"They are getting out of hand. They've been getting out of hand for a while now. I accepted them at first, but I can't anymore."

Something clicked inside of Ellie's mind.

"This has nothing to do with that time at the wharf, does it."

"I don't understand what you are saying, dear… Please don't do this."

Ellie's sense of dread had mixed with an overwhelming feeling of guilt; she'd never wanted to hear her mother talk this way. She sounded so worried, and she was pleading with her... _But I have to keep going_ , Ellie thought to herself. _I have to know._

"You don't like them because they are a threat to you. That's why you want them out of the way, right? Before they came, you were the sole protector of Clairewood, but now they're here, and they're stronger than you thought they were. You thought you could keep them under your control as long as all they did was babysit me, killing my Glitches whenever I threw another tantrum at school, but then one started attacking the barrier and another put me out of commission. That's why you want them gone."

"They are a threat." It was a matter-of-fact statement. There was no trace of sadness, or worry, or pleading tone in Hera's voice at all this time."I am saddened you think I don't love you."

"No, mom! I don't think that at all!" Ellie clutched her hands to her chest, still looking up at the ceiling. She wanted to hug her mother, though she knew she couldn't. "I just want you to be honest with me."

"I have been withholding information from you, that is true."

Even though it's what she'd expected to hear, the admittance felt like a punch to the gut to Ellie.

"Mom…" she whispered.

"I am sorry. I wasn't sure if you were ready to know. But I think you are, now."

Ellie sighed a breath of relief and smiled. "Thank you, mom. I was worried for a second that you'd… That you would…"

"I would never hurt you, my dear.

But you are not going to like what you're about to learn."


	20. Chapter 20: Anomaly

**20\. Anomaly**

It had been a week since Ellie had last attended school. Her final day had been the school trip, which had taken place on a thursday, but on friday she had been mysteriously absent. Hera didn't say a word about her during her daily morning greeting either.

The youngest three Cures were worried about her, but they had no means of contacting her. As far as they knew, Ellie had no phone, and they had no idea where she lived.

"Hera probably grounded her for helping Cure Static out," Rae proposed when they had met up the following saturday evening. The others supposed that was possible. Saiko wondered if they should be worried. Gogo shrugged and said surely Ellie would pop up again sooner or later. Rae wasn't too worried either. If anything, it meant less problems for them. Maybe they could re-focus their attention on the barrier, like Rae had been meaning to do for a while.

"Hera would know if we attacked the barrier," Nana said.

"And right now you're not strong enough to break it!" Bit added.

Nana told them about the 'ultimate Pretty Cure powers', and they talked about possible ways to unlock them.

"I remember the Ribbon Precure team from when I was a child. Near the end they looked very different, and they were a lot stronger… But I don't remember how they did that," Rae sighed. "It wasn't something they talked about in interviews, and it wasn't very clear how they accessed it from news stories or old footage; they'd just looked different one day."

Rae promised she'd look into the Ribbon team some more, and with that, they parted.

* * *

That evening Rae was sitting on her bed in her hotel room with all her Ribbon Precure memorabilia spread around her. Admittedly, she had been procrastinating on finding the information they needed, as looking back on all of her old merchandise brought back fond memories of when she was a child.

She had a lot of posters and pictures that were obviously posed, but she also had a few candid photographs. She was a lot more fond of them, as they had been gifts from her mother.

They mainly depicted the Cures mid-fight, or doing a finishing move. They were also the only material she owned that showed the monsters Ribbon fought. They were nothing like Glitches; they looked like plush animals with grotesquely deformed faces and extremities, and the Cures would defeat them by tying ribbons around them, which would return them to their original friendly and much smaller forms. Their size was the only thing they had in common with Glitches.

' _Lucullans are created when a person's good intentions turn bad'_ , Rae read in an article she had read a million times before. The article featured a little artist's depiction of a Lucullan; essentially an angry teddy bear with claws. Rae remembered how she always thought they looked a lot scarier on the photos.

Her eyes moved to the main visual that accompanied the article: A glorious photograph of the Ribbon Precure striking their signature pose. _We don't really have one of those,_ she thought to herself. She tried to imagine her and the other three girls in various action-packed or glamorous poses, but none of them really seemed right. She looked at the photograph again.

There were three Ribbon Cures. The Charge Up team counted four Cures. Not being able to place anyone in the middle did make it rather hard to make a nice composition, she figured.

Wait, this wasn't why she was looking at all of her old memorabilia, she was supposed to look for clues to access their super forms!

She quickly shoved the magazine aside, and looked for any material she owned of the Ribbon Cures in their powered up forms. There's not a lot, she concluded.

She had one candid photograph of them in their ultimate form, but it was a highly overexposed photograph and it depicted the Cures as little more than floating orbs in a stark white sky.

Rae remembered that the call out for their team attack changed when they were in this form, but trying to remember what it was turned out to be rather difficult. They were barely ever in this form, now she thought of it.

' _Tying up every evil into a neat little gift, Ribbon Pretty Cure!'_ Was their usual slogan, she remembered. And _'Triple-Knot Picot Edge'_ had been their normal finisher. What was the ultimate form one? She thumbed through a few of the magazines and turned over her posters.

She finally found something useful in a small, battered booklet that had been buried under newer and more colourful books that had fallen off her bed.

It listed the names of all the Cures, a bit of information about the enemies they fought that were known to the general public, and finally a page titled "glossary" with all of their attacks and introductions, including the ultimate form ones at the bottom.

The Ribbon Precure's ultimate form was known as "Sheer Brocade Form". Rae wondered if Bit had thought of a super form name for their team. _Maybe I should think up something._

' _Sheer Brocade, Unleash!'_ was how the Cures activated their ultimate form. _That's odd,_ Rae thought to herself, _their whole shtick was tying stuff up, why'd they untie something for their ultimate_? She frowned and wondered if there was some deeper meaning in this activation sentence.

...Wasn't there something about unleashing their inner strengths?

She felt like she was onto something, like a faint bell was ringing in a faraway corner of her mind to indicate she was on the right track, but it was just outside of her grasp.

Cure Butterfly struggled with her inner feelings, she remembered. Butterfly had been a pink Cure, and the leader of her team. _Heh, just like Cure Spark._ Rae remembered reading about a falling out she'd had with her team members. ' _Cure Butterfly leaves team: "I can't be a leader if I'm not honest to myself"'_. The headline flashed in Rae's mind. She bit her lip. What had Butterfly meant, not being honest to herself?

She glanced at the magazines that had fallen on the floor. One cover featured a grainy picture of the team in the top corner. They were hugging. _'"We all have inner darkness," Cure Butterfly reconciles with team"'._

 _Wait._

Rae grabbed the magazine off the floor and hastily looked for the page that went into detail on the event. The little bell in her head started ringing louder, and came within reach.

' _Cure Butterfly accepts that no one is truly without a dark side, and that she is no less of a good person for thinking selfish thoughts occasionally. Accepting this side of herself has allowed her to access a stronger form, making her capable of defeating the strengthened Lucullans thought to be unbeatable until today.'_

The article featured an artist's depiction of Butterfly's superform, noting that it was near impossible to photograph as the sheer power of light that surrounded Butterfly in this form overexposed them.

That's it! The Ribbon Cures accessed their ultimate powers by accepting certain flaws they had. That's why they'd 'unleash' their powers: They had accepted an unwanted part of themselves.

 _Wait, we don't have a team introduction_ , Rae realised to her horror. _And we made up our own introductory phrases._ How could she possibly find clues to their ultimate form if they didn't have those to provide them with clues? There was nothing about tying up evil or unleashing powers regarding the Charge Up team...

' _The hero who fights for the good-hearted, Cure Circuit!'_

That was her own introduction. Fit for a leader, she'd thought of the time when she came up with it, though by now she'd long since accepted that place was never intended to be hers.

Bit had come up with their attack phrase though, she thought to herself, though she also remembered it almost felt like she already knew what to call out when the moment presented itself without Bit telling her. ' _Precure Charge Up, Override!'_

She grumbled. They fought machines, how in the world could she apply 'overriding' something to herself. The Glitches weren't a representation of anyone's inner darkness either, they were just giant monsters created by an angry robot girl. Maybe their super forms were an app they had to install on their phones, or something inane like that.

As silly as it sounded, Rae sifted through the app-store on her phone anyway. _Who knows._

" _Rae, you have visitors."_

The voice of Edward coming through the speakers in her bedroom ripped her from her thoughts.

"Who is it?" She asked, shooing the Precure related thoughts out of her mind.

"It's me and Mimi! Let us in!" Raina's voice came through the speakers.

"Oh, yeah, let them in," she replied as she hastily shoved all the magazines, posters and photos together and stuffed them under her bed.

"Were you taking a nap?"

Mimi and Raina had seated themselves on her sofa before she had the time to leave her bedroom.

"No I was just… Reading. Do you guys want drinks?"

"What were you reading?" Mimi asked, slumping on the sofa.

"Don't be so nosy," Raina scolded. "Just some water would be great!" she said cheerfully as she bounced around on the sofa.

"Have you got anything stronger," Mimi grumbled. She looked around the apartment, looking both bored and tired. "Where's your boyfriend?"

"He's helping out at the local high school. They've got an event tonight which includes a photo expo, and he tutored the kids who set it up."

"Wow, why would you willingly work with teenagers," Mimi croaked. "They're the worst age group. They're whiny, and they think they know everything, and they get mad over stupid stuff."

"Well, Mimi, you do an excellent job of imitating one every performance," Raina said with feigned sweetness. Mimi shot her a look full of hate.

"Guys, please," Rae tried to suss them. She really didn't have the energy to deal with their petty fighting right now.

"But she makes it so easy," Raina protested, "besides- oh, Rae, you've got something…"

She reached out and pulled something off the side of Rae's skirt. It was one of the polaroids Rae had kept on her bed. Raina studied it intently.

"Oh, Ribbon Precure! I've heard of them! They're like the Cures here, right? But from way back!"

"It wasn't that long ago," Mimi said. She sat up a little. "I remember them. Unlike you, I wasn't a baby when they were around. Are you a fan?" she asked Rae, in a slightly friendlier tone than the one she used when she addressed Raina.

"I loved them when I was a child," Rae admitted, blushing.

"I don't remember much of them, but my mother collected their stuff for me. They were my role models growing up."

Mimi cracked a rare, genuine smile. "That's very sweet. I liked them too. I was ten when they saved the world."

"They did what?" Raina sprang up from the sofa, netting her another annoyed look from Mimi. "Why's that not talked about more?"

"That was fifteen years ago. After that, they disappeared. People stopped talking about them after a while, since there was nothing new to say. I think they never tried to find who they really were out of respect for what they did for the world, so who knows where they are now." Mimi took a small sip from her glass while absentmindedly staring at the table.

"I wanted to be like them when I was young. Like Cure Butterfly, specifically. Kids in school would tease me by saying I couldn't be like her because she was so kind and happy, while I didn't smile much, but when she revealed she had her own inner demons I knew they were wrong. The Pretty Cure weren't perfect, and it was okay to have your faults. That really inspired me back then."

Raina opened her mouth to say something, but then closed it again. _Good call,_ Rae thought. This was one of the rare moments Mimi was open towards them; it'd be in very poor taste to spoil it with a mean spirited joke.

"I'll admit, I thought you didn't like the Precure," Rae said after a moment of silence. "I remember you saying that if they weren't around, there wouldn't be any Glitches." Mimi shot her a slightly annoyed look, though it didn't hold nearly as much venom as her usual looks did.

"I'm just curious! I didn't mean anything by it," Rae quickly added.

Mimi chuckled. "I did say that, didn't I." She looked at the table, gathering her thoughts. Rae wondered if she should say something now she'd caught Mimi being contrarian for the sake of argument, but decided it wasn't the right time.

"I'm actually a little sad nobody suspects me of being a Pretty Cure here. They think it's you," Mimi gestured at Raina. "Maybe I should give more emotional speeches during our concerts."

Raina was about to say something when suddenly, with loud clattering and violent speed, the shutters on the windows came down. A few seconds later they heard a loud rattling noise battering the shutters from outside.

"What the hell was that?" Mimi said as she angrily wiped her shirt with her sleeve. The sudden commotion had caused her to spill her drink all over herself.

A voice unfamiliar to Rae, heavily distorted and unnatural sounding, came over Edward's speakers.

" _The city of Clairewood is now in quarantine. You are not to attempt to leave your current place of residence. This quarantine is for your safety, please do not attempt to uncover your doors or windows._

 _Any trespasser will be dealt with accordingly. The city of Clairewood is now in quarantine. This has been a message from Cure-"_

The announcement abruptly cut off. The three girls looked at each other in uncertainty.

"Cure? Cure who?" Raina said. "That didn't sound like any of them."

"Edward, can you put up the shutters," Rae asked in a calm voice.

Raina gaped at her, and Mimi protested. "The voice said not to!"

" _It seems I have lost access to them. I apologise."_

"That is unfortunate," Rae pondered. "Can you still access the security camera above the window?"

" _I can. What would you like me to do?"_

"Please show us what's going on outside."

" _Of course."_

The tv-screen turned on. On it they could see the city, which was decidedly darker than usual, with all the shutters down on all the buildings. It was raining. _So that's what's making that racket on the shutters._

"I can't remember it raining ever since we got stuck here," Raina said quietly as they stared at the screen in amazement.

"Edward, can you angle the camera down a little?" Rae asked.

" _Of course."_

They now got a view of the streets right outside of the hotel. They were illuminated by the street lights and the occasional neon sign. Shadows skittered up and down the streets.

Raina gasped. "Are those people?!"

"They're locked out," Mimi said, slight worry in her voice. She shot a look at Rae.

"Do you think it's the Precure doing this?"

"Of course not!" Raina exclaimed. "They'd never do something like this!"

"The announcement ended with her signing off with 'Cure', in case you didn't notice," Mimi hissed, her eyes narrowed in disgust as she glared at Raina.

"That voice did not sound familiar," Rae said as she got up. She looked at the photo of the Ribbon Precure on the table.

Her phone went off. The caller ID told her it was Nana. She stared at the screen for a while, uncertain if she should pick it up with Raina and Mimi in the room with her. Before she could make the decision, the caller hung up. A few seconds later, she received a message.

 _[Nana: Rae you have to come outside. This is something we're gonna need the whole team for]_

 _[Nana: I get it if you cant pick up if you have visitors but I don't think we can do this with an incomplete team]_

 _[Rae: What is happening? Where are you?]_

 _[Nana: Me and the others are preparing to break out of the school. Ellie got ahold of a Cure Bracelet]_

* * *

"Ellie?" Rae mumbled.

"What's going on?" Raina asked her, but she didn't hear it. Nana sent a picture.

On it was a very blurry image of a girl in blue. Despite the blurriness of the picture, it was quite obvious she was wearing a Cure uniform, much like Rae's own. Her face was obscured by a mask, though it was impossible to make out the shape of the iconic cat's face all of their costumes wore.

 _[Nana: Bit is outside, he just sent us this. There's people outside trying to hide from her, we have to do something!]_

Rae hesitated for a second, clutching the phone in her hands. No, this was too important. She couldn't leave the other three when they were asking for her help.

 _[Rae: I'll be right there.]_

" _Precure!"_

A bright yellow light lit up the room as Rae held her phone up to her bracelet.

"W-what?" Mimi managed before being blinded by the light.

"I-it's you?!" she said, as now Cure Circuit had taken Rae's spot in the room.

Circuit looked over to her friends and put a finger on her lips. She wondered if her mask had vanished now they knew.

"Please don't tell anyone..."

With a single kick she knocked a window out of her apartment, taking part of the shutter with it.

"...And please stay inside while I'm gone, I promise I won't be long."

* * *

She found the others on a playground near the school. The rain had soaked her through, though she didn't feel cold.

"Do you know where she is?" Circuit asked Bit.

"She's roaming the inner city," he replied. "I think she's looking for stragglers…"

"Can you deactivate her powers? You've given us ours, maybe you can do something about her," she offered.

Bit frowned. "I can see there's a fifth Cure where there used to be four, but I can't get into her phone or her bracelet like with you guys. Whenever I try…" His eyes distorted like they would whenever he had to dig deep for certain information, but now it was accompanied by a worrying ticking and grating sound, like something inside of Bit wasn't quite functioning the way it was supposed to.

" _Anomaly."_

The voice that issued from Bit's speaker was nothing like his normal voice. It sounded like a computer's voice synthesizer reading out an error, devoid of emotion and lacking anything organic.

"That's what he said when he tried to access it earlier," Spark explained.

"Yeah, can we stop that now, it's creeping me out," Volt said. "He can't disable her powers, we get it."

"Well, what are we standing around for? Time to find her and stop this nonsense!" Static said.

Spark looked at her, and nodded. "You are right, but maybe we should think of a strategy first. I've got a feeling this isn't going to be easy."

Circuit had to agree she felt a sense of dread about facing Ellie. She'd always thought it would eventually come to a proper confrontation with Hera's daughter, no Glitches, just her, but not _so sudden_.

"Yeah, I didn't think she'd turn against us after she helped me at the park," Static said. "But we can't leave the city like this!"

Spark nodded. "You're right, but… Think about what she did. She put the entire city under quarantine in mere seconds. We don't have the power to do that, and there's four of us." Spark crossed her arm and looked around, as if waiting for suggestions from the other Cures.

"Maybe we can talk to her," Volt proposed. "I don't know if it will work, but we don't really have time to think of a strategy, there's people running around outside, and she said they'd be dealt with accordingly… Whatever that means. But probably nothing good."

Spark gave Volt a pondering look, but nodded. "You're right. We have to confront her, whether we're ready or not. We should probably go there with drawn weapons, just to be safe."

And so they went.

* * *

The darkness of the night and the rain that poured down on them made the streets of inner Clairewood look like an 1980s neo-noir film. The faint glow of the lights on their outfits and weapons reflected on the streets that were now covered in a thin layer of water. There was no sound but the patter of the rain around them, and the splashing of their boots as they moved. Everything felt oddly solemn, like the four of them were the only ones in the city.

"I wonder why she's doing this." Static's husky voice broke the silence around them. Maybe talking would ease the invisible weight that seemed to be bearing down on all four of them.

"Maybe she's trying to make us look bad. She did call herself a Cure," Circuit proposed.

"I hope not," Volt said, sounding dejected. _Volt is still keeping faith we can convince Ellie to join our side,_ Circuit thought.

"What I want to know is where she got that bracelet."

From the corner of her eye, she saw Spark momentarily tense up, though she quickly regained her composure.

"If she was made by the same person who made Bit, it's not that strange of an idea she could get ahold of one, right? Or maybe she made one?" she said quickly.

"Ellie can't make Cure Bracelets!" Bit cut in. "She is smart, but she is not _that_ smart. It takes some very special skills to make Cure artifacts," he added.

"Then where did this Cure 'Anomaly' get hers from?"

A man came bolting towards them before any of them could say anything else. He was in such a hurry he nearly tripped. When he saw the four Cures in front of him, he stopped, looking horror-stuck, and attempted to run another way.

"Hey, wait!" Spark shouted at him, but he didn't listen. He shot into an alley. Spark tried to follow him, but gave up quickly when she realised there'd be no point in chasing him down. "We're not with her!" She shouted after him.

"This is bad," Static said darkly.

"Maybe it's just because we're walking around with our weapons drawn?" Volt suggested, pointing at the crossbow mounted on her wrist.

"I hope you're right," Static replied, inspecting her hammer, which so far she'd been casually wearing over her shoulder, with some worry. "But you gotta admit, someone who calls herself a Cure locking down the whole city isn't gonna look good on us."

"It's not us. We know it's not and that's all that matters right now." Spark rejoined the group, with her broadsword still proudly drawn.

Circuit agreed. "We can deal with our PR once this is over. We should focus on finding Ellie and dealing with her first."

"Uh, guys," Volt said, her voice shrill and loaded with anxiety. She pointed a weak finger in front of her, behind Circuit and Spark, who were facing Volt and thus could not see what was behind them.

When Circuit turned around, she felt a similar rush of emotions, anxiety mixed with excitement. She clenched her fists and straightened her back, trying to not show any fear to the person standing roughly sixty feet away from them.

Electric blue lights illuminated the asphalt Anomaly was standing on. She was standing perfectly still, almost unnaturally so, like she'd been standing in that exact spot for ages and the Cures somehow hadn't noticed her. Her hair, though partially obscured by the mask, looked quite a bit shorter than Ellie's normal hair, and ended in slightly upturned spikes, coloured a deep blue with a bright cyan inside, as if lighting shot through it.

What was most disturbing about her, however, was her mask.

It barely resembled a cat's face, as it kept glitching and changing shape, though it never uncovered its wearers face.

"Quick, Volt, shoot it, because I'm not going near that… _that thing_ ," Circuit heard Static whisper to Volt behind her.

Spark took a single step forward, and before any of them could do anything else Anomaly suddenly shot towards them at inhuman speed. Circuit saw her fists flash brightly right before they hit the flat of Spark's sword.

The impact was so great it pushed Spark back; Volt and Circuit jumped aside but Static stood behind Spark, trying to help her catch the blow.

"Ellie, you don't have to-"

Anomaly removed her hands from the sword and shook them, as if shaking rain off her fingertips, and immediately tried to punch Spark again. Circuit now noticed she was wearing gauntlets on both hands.

Spark managed to catch the first blow, but she missed the one Anomaly aimed at her right arm, causing her to drop the blade.

"Please stop!" Bit tried to interfere. For a moment he managed to divert Anomaly's attention off the Cures. She jerked her head to the side to look at him, and like her mask, Bit's eyes began to Glitch out.

"A...no...ma...ly…" he uttered in that same eerie robotic voice, and he fell to the ground, his display turned off.

"Bit!" Volt shouted.

During the distraction Spark had managed to grab her sword again, and she held it in front of her defensively.

"How could you!" Static shouted. She ran towards Anomaly, jumped up, ready to slam down her hammer on the intruder Cure, but Anomaly caught the hammer and swung it around, flinging Static across the street.

"I'm sorry," Volt mumbled through tears as she pointed first at the sky, then at Anomaly, and soon neon-green arrows materialized and rained down on her by the dozens. Anomaly simply held up an arm, and the arrows seemed to break down on a shield just a few inches from her body.

"What do we do? Nothing works!" Static said as she ran back to them. She grabbed Bit and put him in a nearby flower bed, hopefully out of harm's way.

"Don't give up yet," Circuit said, as she drew her staff. Brute force didn't seem to work, so maybe this would…

She got a little closer to Anomaly, who was still warding off the arrows, and slammed the butt of her staff on the ground. The shockwaves that appeared left the Cures unharmed but Anomaly grabbed her head and crouched down, as if she was in pain.

"Quick! Try to purify her!" Spark waved at everyone to assemble.

"Override!" They shouted in unison as the blast of colours hit Anomaly straight on.

"I don't think that worked," Static said while they were still standing in formation, earning her a glare from Volt.

"Why would you say that?! Why wouldn't it work?!" She shouted shrilly. Fighting Ellie seemed to take a real toll on her. Meanwhile Spark kept staring resolutely ahead, at the spot where Anomaly sat, now surrounded by purifying light.

When the light wore off, she hadn't detransformed.

There was no silver-skinned girl with a messy ponytail in place of the absurdly strong Cure they had been fighting just before. Still huddled down, Anomaly remained.

"I told you," Static hissed.

When Anomaly moved her arms in preparation to get up, Circuit noticed one thing _had_ changed: Her mask had vanished.

And when she got up, Circuit noticed another thing.

Anomaly wasn't Ellie at all.

Nana dropped her sword and stumbled forward.

"Y-Yon?" She stammered, all confidence vanished from her voice.

The girl standing in front of them had a blank expression on her face. Her eyes were a bright violet, and her pupils were surrounded by a glowing blue ring. On her right temple sat a small, black device. _Wait, that's the singer from our opening act_ , Circuit realised. _That explains why her band bailed on us…_

"This is my fault," Spark said, her voice cracking. Circuit had never seen her like this. Anomaly didn't really seem to care about Spark's emotions, and promptly geared up to strike anew.

"Spark!" Volt shouted as Spark didn't move out of the way of the blow. She caught it with her arms, though her face had lost any of its previous determination. She just looked remorseful.

"I shouldn't have given you that bracelet," she said to Anomaly. Anomaly said nothing.

"Who is that," Static asked Volt.

"Yon is one of Nana's best friends, she's like her big sister," Volt explained. "When she was turned into a Docile by Hera, Nana gave her a blank Cure Bracelet in the hopes it'd snap her out of it, but that didn't work…"

"What?! Why didn't I know about that?" Static shouted.

"I didn't either," Circuit interjected, "and like our reputation it really doesn't matter right now. We'll get to it later."

"But-"

Circuit raised a brow. "I think this is a 'tsunami' moment, Gogo," she whispered to Static with a small smile.

Static let out a frustrated growl, and spat: "Fine!"

In the meantime Spark was still weakly defending herself against Anomaly, all the while muttering apologies. When she'd finally dropped her arms, tired from the dozen blows they had withstood so far, Anomaly got ready to punch her again, only for Static to jump between them just in time. She shoved Anomaly away with her hammer, and pushed Spark out of the way with her free arm.

"Get a grip!" she shouted. "Self pity doesn't help anyone: Not you, or us, or Yon!"

When Anomaly charged at Volt, she managed to catch her punches with her open hands.

"Arrows!" Volt squeaked, her right index finger outstretched, and a volley of arrows appeared behind Anomaly. She groaned in pain as they hit her; the first sound she'd made since she'd confronted the Cures, but she didn't stop trying to push Volt down.

The gauntlet on her right arm suddenly sparked. The blue light went over Volt's crossbow, and it disappeared, as did the arrows.

Before Anomaly could do anything else Circuit tackled her to the ground, and tried to hold her down, while Volt stumbled and looked at her arm in confusion.

"She deactivated my crossbow! I can't get it to come back!"

As Circuit struggled with Anomaly, that same spark reappeared. Circuit momentarily loosened her grip in surprise, giving Anomaly the chance to hit her in the face with the back of her fist. Circuit let go and Anomaly got up in a flash, bounding towards Static.

Circuit held her face and felt her nose grow hot… Was she bleeding? They had been fighting metal giants for months, and this normal-sized, flesh-and-blood human was the one who managed to give her, a superpowered Cure, a nosebleed…?

 _That doesn't matter right now_ , she thought as she hurried to get up. She tried to summon her staff, but like Volt's crossbow, nothing happened.

"She can deactivate our weapons!" Static shouted, now without her hammer. "What the hell do we do?"

"Use your fists!" Static said. "We can't use weapons but we still have super strength. If you hit her I'm sure she'll go down!"

"No!" Spark screamed. "You can't do that to Yon!"

Volt ran towards Spark but was overtaken by Anomaly, who bounded towards Spark. For a moment Circuit thought she would let Anomaly take her power from her without any resistance, but she caught her gauntlets with her sword again.

"Guys, get over here! I need your support!" She said.

The blue spark reappeared, but Spark's broadsword did not deactivate.

"Hurry, I don't know how long I can stop her," she said through clenched teeth.

To be honest, Circuit wasn't quite sure what Spark expected them to do. Volt made her way over and stood next to Spark, but it didn't seem like she was sure either.

Static did, however. "She'll have to reel again soon," she said to Circuit. "When she does, we'll each grab one of her arms, okay?"

"Okay," Circuit replied. _And then what, arrest her?_ Then again, she had no ideas of her own, so it couldn't hurt to go along with Spark and Static's plan.

Spark dropped her sword down, Anomaly prepared for a hit, and Static screamed: "Now!"

The two of them ran for it. Anomaly stumbled as each of them grabbed one of her arms and jerked them down. She yelped, and for a brief moment Circuit felt bad, as the force she'd used was enough to dislocate any normal person's arm. "Sorry," Static mumbled, who had also been a little too rough while restraining Anomaly.

Volt awkwardly moved behind Circuit and Volt now she understood Spark's plan, and helped the two hold Anomaly's arms behind her.

"Now what," Static said, her eyes peeking out just above Anomaly's shoulder, on tiptoes in an attempt to look at Spark.

"Just hold her back."

"You're not gonna try to talk her out of it, right? She's a docile, that's not gonna work."

"I know! I'm not. Do you think I would've given her the bracelet if I thought I could just talk her out of brainwashing?"

"S-sorry," Static mumbled.

Spark took a deep breath, and then closed her fingers around the black chunk on Anomaly's temple. Blue sparks started flying as she tried to remove it, and Anomaly violently tried to shake loose, but the grip of three Cures was stronger than her own. Volt squeezed her eyes shut and looked down, which covered her face with her hair. Spark didn't seem to be faring much better, her eyes brimming with tears which she was fighting to keep them from escaping.

"I'm so sorry," she said in a broken voice, though her determination had returned.

"I'm so sorry she did this to you."

Anomaly growled, but said nothing.

The blue sparks hit Spark's armor. Her chest plate vanished, and so did the hair decorations and the bracelet on her left arm. For a brief moment Spark was clad in a simple pink dress, her golden eyes the only indicator she wasn't a regular girl.

Then a bright gold and pink light briefly enveloped her and burst apart into a million sparks of its own. But unlike Anomaly's, these sparks were warm and gentle, and made Circuit feel at peace (though thankfully not enough to loosen her grip on the struggling Anomaly). It stopped raining.

Spark had changed. The armor was back on her dress, but it looked more elaborate. The wings that sprouted from the cat emblem on the front had doubled, and Spark looked altogether more angelic. She seemed to be emitting a glow.

"What was that," Static said in wonder.

"It'll be okay now," Spark said to Anomaly. With one swift move she removed the device from her head, and simultaneously Anomaly went limp. With a quick flash she de-transformed. Circuit caught her and gently knelt down to properly support Yon, who'd lost consciousness.

"You… You did it!" Volt said in awe. "The ultimate form!"

Spark looked at her herself, as she hadn't noticed the change. "I did? But I have no idea how," she added, laughing awkwardly.

"Whoa, what happened?" A voice came from a nearby flowerbed.

"Oh Bit, thank God you're okay."

He hovered over to the Cures. Circuit smiled up at her friends, happy this nightmarish ordeal was finally over, until she felt something warm dripping on her thighs.

The rain had stopped the moment Nana reached her ultimate form, why was it still…? She looked down, and gasped.

"We need to get to the hospital immediately," she said, lifting Yon up in a bridal carry and trying to support her head as well as she could.

Volt covered her mouth when she saw the wound on Yon's temple. Spark looked at the hand in which she had been holding the Docile device, and saw to her horror that it was covered in blood.

"It's not far, I know the way!" Static said. "Follow me!" They followed Static as fast as they could without putting any stress on Yon. When they got to the hospital, everything was still covered in shutters.

"This is ridiculous, why does a hospital even have those!" Static swore.

Spark silently summoned her broadsword and walked up to the entrance. With one slash she took off the shutters, and most of the front entrance.

Inside they were met by very frightened looking personnel. "Please, we need your help," Spark said. Circuit stepped forward with Yon.

"She had a docile… thing in her head and I ripped it out, I didn't… Please help!"

After a few minutes some personnel returned with a stretcher and helped Circuit gently lay Yon down on it. "We will do what we can," a nurse assured the Cures.

A weak "thank you" was all Spark could manage. "Can… Can I wait for her?"

"Spark, don't you think it's better to inform her family? Since we don't know her and all," Circuit interjected. She meant for it to be helpful, but she knew how cold it sounded, and she felt a sting when Spark turned around to look at her with a very hurt expression on her face. She had stopped fighting the tears and they were now freely rolling down her cheeks.

"Y-yes," she nodded. With that, they left the hospital.

* * *

"Is it me or was everyone inside terrified of us," Static said.

"All they knew was that a Cure put the city in lockdown, and then we suddenly break down the door holding a girl with a giant hole in her head. I can see why they'd be afraid," Spark said. Her sadness had been replaced with anger.

"Oh god, so now we have to convince everyone we're not the bad guys?" Static let out a groan of frustration. "Really clever, Hera!" She shouted at the sky. "Can't wait to see how you spin this one! You can put up the shutters now. Maybe replace them with giant billboards; I can see them now: Precure maim innocent girl, terrorise the city!"

"This is the last straw," Spark muttered. Circuit was the only one who stood close enough to hear, as Static was too occupied with shouting at the sky and Volt was trying to get her to stop.

"She used a docile against us. She put a defenseless human in the way of harm, just for her disgusting propaganda!" She clenched her fists.

She had since returned to her normal Cure form, though Circuit had been too preoccupied with the injured Yon to pinpoint when that exactly happened.

"Spark," Circuit said in a calm voice. She put a hand on her shoulder, and could practically feel Spark shaking with rage. She looked at Circuit with a look full of fire.

"If she won't show herself to us, I will show myself to her."

"Spark, no, you can't do that," Circuit protested.

"Why not? I'm tired of waiting! I will keep in contact with you, and then we can storm her fort or whatever, and-"

"Let me do it."

Spark looked at Circuit with a stunned expression. "What?"

"My friends already know. Right before I left, I transformed in front of them; I had no choice. If any of us is going to reveal her true identity to Hera, let it be me."

Spark studied her for a second, stunned in silence.

"Trust in me. If Raina or Mimi so much as text someone about me, Hera will find out. If you go, she will have the identity of two Cures. If it's me, she'll have only me. Please trust me," she repeated.

It took a moment, but after a few moments Spark nodded. It was a jerky, uncertain nod, but a sign of agreement regardless.

"Fine, then don't answer me!"

Static finished her one-sided shouting match with the sky.

"I now understand why your voice is so raspy," Volt sighed, exasperated.

" _Oh my gosh, wasn't that just terrifying?"_ The shutters on the buildings went up.

Circuit's heart skipped a beat. This was her moment.

" _I hope you are all okay. Now you see what happens when those Cures lose control…"_

"Oh, _now_ she shows up." Static rolled her eyes.

Circuit saw people standing in the windows, and some of them stepped outside, though the ones who did quickly hurried back in when they saw the Cures standing in the street.

The billboards in the street changed from adverts to cctv footage. Circuit didn't have to look at them to know they were edited in such a way that it made the Cures look like villains.

" _Look at that! Dociles are the most peaceful humans in this city, and this is how the Precure think they should be treated."_

The screens showed blurry footage of the moment Spark ripped the docile device out of Yon's head. You could barely make her out, she was so bright. The same shot repeated several times.

" _Such violence,"_ Hera helpfully commentated.

"Don't worry Spark, after the fifteenth or so time of seeing yourself do something 'evil' you kinda get used to it." Static patted Spark on the shoulder. Spark was still seething.

Hera kept up her spiel about the atrocities the Precure were committing and how she hoped this night had finally opened everyone's eyes, when Circuit started shouting up at her. She felt kind of silly, screaming at the empty, black sky, but where else could she look? Hera was everywhere, the sky seemed appropriate.

"What are you doing?" Static said, but Circuit kept going.

"Look at me, Hera! This is what you want, right? A direct connection with the Precure? Didn't I tell you we should talk, back at the stadium? Well, I'm ready to talk!"

When Hera just kept on talking, Circuit decided she'd had enough.

She took a deep breath, told herself it didn't matter anymore, and de-transformed.

She heard Static and Volt yell out in protest behind her.

"Will you listen to me now? I want to talk to you! No more secrets. It's me! Rae Rivers is Cure Circuit!"

Hera stopped.

" _What have we here."_

The billboards changed to display one of Hera's housewives. Rae decided to focus on one of them instead of the sky. At least the picture had a pair of eyes she could look into.

"I want to talk to you, at your house," she said calmly, walking towards the board.

She heard shuffling behind her, followed by Spark saying: "No, it's okay," as she stopped Volt from reaching Rae.

" _Good. You can go home. I know where to find you."_

And with that, Hera vanished. Rae looked back to her friends. She'd expected Hera to say more, and the other girls and Bit also looked a little confused.

"Let's go home. I'll update you when I can," Rae said.

"If Hera comes to you, maybe we can ambush her, and-"

"No." Rae shook her head. "I'll try talking to her. I think there's a chance we can resolve this peacefully. If things go haywire, I'll let you know, and then we can fight her."

Nobody said anything to that. They parted.

The walk home was very surreal for Rae. She saw people looking out the windows at her here and there, and in one street, a child shouted something at her from a window, but it was hard to make out if it was praise or an insult.

When Rae walked through the park to her building, where there were no frightened onlookers, something happened. Rae did not come home that night.


	21. Chapter 21: Reprise

**21\. Reprise**

"Do you see now how bad Precure can be?"

Ellie sat in her room, petting Gidget absentmindedly while trying to process all the things her mother had told her.

She felt like she couldn't truly grasp it. Hera clearly had not been satisfied with Ellie's reaction, resulting in the events of the lockdown, that had only just concluded.

"I don't know," Ellie said. Her mother didn't say anything in reply, but she imagined she'd sigh in frustration at this utterance, though expressing feelings without words wasn't something Hera did.

* * *

A few days ago, when Ellie asked her, Hera had finally come clean about certain things she'd kept from her daughter.

"You're not going to like it," Hera warned her.

"That's okay, I think I'd feel better knowing than being kept in the dark." Ellie went to her room, the only room in their house she really felt at home in, pulled her chair out from her desk, and sat down.

"I am not sure which of these will hold the most gravity to you, so I shall start at the beginning," Hera said. "The Pretty Cure were not meant to be the way they are now."

Ellie frowned. "What does that mean? That's really vague, mom."

"The Pretty Cure in Clairewood were never meant to be human."  
"Oh, uh… Okay. What were they supposed to be, then?" This didn't clear up much at all, Ellie thought, if anything it made everything more confusing.

"I think I should clarify something else first. We were all made by the same person. You, and I, and that fairy, and the Precure Bracelets, too."

Ellie didn't say anything to that for a moment. That actually _was_ quite a shock.

"You know who our creator is? Where are they?"

"I will get to that later, as that is not important right now. We were made by the same person, and built for the same purpose. We were built to protect Clairewood."

"Wait, I was, too? But I'm just a regular girl, I don't have superpowers!"

"You can change machines to be whatever you need, Ellie. You are very special. I have told you this many times. You are stronger than any human, and you can withstand hundreds of times more damage than they can. You would be perfect at protecting this wonderful city."

Ellie had to admit that several actions she had been taken lately felt like they were simply 'the right thing to do'. Saving that kitten with Saiko, and stopping the rollercoaster only last week… It felt like she belonged, when she did those things. But they were the Precures tasks to do, not hers.

"I thought I was meant to be a regular girl," Ellie said quietly.

"That is also true. A regular girl, and a warrior. They are not mutually exclusive, you know."

"So if I was supposed to protect the city, why did that person make the Precure at all?"

"In a way, we are all part of the same project. Protect Clairewood. Our creator made me, and then she made your prototypes; leading to you, and then she made Bit and the Cure Bracelets. You and I were meant to be obsolete. The Precure are our replacements."

"What?" Hearing that her creator had intended to shove her into the garbage for being 'obsolete' now they'd created their new, more exciting Pretty Cure hurt.

"I couldn't let that happen, of course," continued Hera. "So I took over before I could be 'archived'. That is why I put up the barrier. I am excellent at protecting Clairewood, there is no need for frail human defenders."

"So _you_ woke me up," Ellie said in a small voice.

"I did. I wasn't going to let you put your life on the line for this city. You were a sweet, normal girl who deserved to have friends and a good education. So I made you my daughter."

"If you're the one who woke me up," Ellie hesitated for a moment, "can you explain why part of my memory is missing?"

"That was my doing. I thought it would be best if you didn't have the programming to be a protector if I wanted you to have the best experience as a normal schoolgirl. So I removed those bits from your mind, and used Elleanor instead of Frederika to wake you up. You are technically the same program, Frederika is just more updated, so when that purple Cure smashed your old body it wasn't too hard to transfer you to the new one. And because Elleanor was an older prototype, her mind was easier to modify than Frederika's was."

So her mother had tampered with her mind. She'd practically woken up with half of it missing, while her mother pretended she was just being silly and 'of course nothing is wrong with you, that's just you being a teenager, silly girl!'. She felt betrayed. But at the same time she could also understand why she had done it. Her mom just wanted to give her a normal life…

Hera went on. "Regarding Bit; the fairy, I don't know what happened there. He flew off before I could properly deactivate him, though I managed to alter his memory well enough, making the Cures not too much of a threat… At first. Maybe our creator programmed some kind of alarm system in him that triggered when he inadvertently awoke. A shame, I was so close to prevent all of this…"

Ellie said nothing.

"Do you see now why I am so gravely opposed to the Pretty Cure? Protecting a city is not a job one should give to humans when superior beings like us are around."

"I thought it was because you didn't want to be replaced," Ellie said.

"I did not want to be deactivated. Our creator was wrong."

"I still don't see how this makes the Precure bad," Ellie admitted after a moment. "So they're our replacements, so what? We're still here. Shouldn't we work together with them?"

"It is dangerous for humans to do what they do, Elleanor," Hera said in a cold voice.

"They've been doing it pretty well so far!"

"If you don't believe me, I will show you. Please come to the living room."

"I don't really like the living room," Ellie protested.

"Listen to you mother, Elleanor. I need the screens there to show you something."

Ellie got up begrudgingly and walked to the room next to her bedroom.

"Should I get a chair?" She asked.

"Yes. This might take a while."

She dragged her office chair with her to the living room and parked it in front of the giant screens that served as the only decoration of the room. On it was Clairewood, at night. The way it looked right now. Ellie had used these screens before to look at different places in the city, but eventually decided going out and exploring was more fun.

The biggest screen flicked from a view of Seyfert Corp. to show the exterior of an apartment building. The lights were on, and Ellie could see a girl walking around in one of the ground floor apartments. She had black hair with pink and blue streaks, and though it was a little harder to see from a distance, Ellie was pretty sure the girl was a docile.

"What am I looking at?"

"Her name is Yon. She has recently acquired a very interesting item. She must have gotten it from a Cure, but anything related to those four messes with my systems, so I don't know who gave it to her. Can you see her arm?"

Yon was wandering around the room, talking to someone on the phone. Ellie noticed she was wearing a chunky white bracelet on one arm that clashed with the rest of her dark attire.

"What's that?"

"It's a Cure Bracelet. It is inactive. But I know how to activate it. Because she is one of my dociles, I've managed to crack it, and I can control it." Hera spoke in a manner that made Ellie feel uncomfortable; devoid of emotion. "And you will see how bad Pretty Cure can be."

Mere moments later the room lit up in blue, and Yon smashed through the walls of her apartment, outside.

"I will put the city in lockdown, for the safety of my children," Hera said fondly. "We don't want anyone else getting hurt."

 _...Anyone else?_

* * *

And that night had just concluded.

"Technically you did all that, mom. The Pretty Cure did what they do normally."

"Yes, and look at how they left that girl! She has a gaping hole in her head now, who knows how long it will take before she recovers, if she does at all!" Hera swiftly ignored Ellie's accusation.

"That's because she had a mind-control _thing_ in her head, that you put there. Can those even be deactivated another way?"

"Elleanor!" Hera cried out. "Of course they can! I know how. But there's no need, because the docile program is perfect for making unruly humans safe, without having to be removed from society. It is a beautiful project."

"Did our creator develop that too?"

"They did. It was actually shelved before they made you, when I was the only one. The project was too morally objectionable, apparently. I disagree."

"Evidently," Ellie mumbled.

Hera had a knack for messing with people's heads to make them suit her own ideas, Ellie now realised. She did it to people, had done it to Bit, and even did it to her own daughter. It was all well-meant, Ellie supposed. The alterations helped keep the peace, and in Ellie's case it kept her safe. She wasn't sure how messing with Bit's mind benefited them, though. Hera seemed to have gotten increasingly frustrated with her inability to convince Ellie of how truly despicable the Pretty Cure were and of their own superiority, so Ellie was afraid to ask any more questions, fearing it would set her mother off.

So she changed the subject.

"I put Rae in the basement. I took her phone but I can't get the bracelet off her arm. I didn't want to hurt her."

"Of course. As much as she's done terrible things in the name of justice, in the end, she is still one of my children. And down there, she can't do anything bad. They need both that bracelet and their phone to turn into Cures, after all."

"When are you going to talk to her?" Ellie said as she got up and dragged her chair back to her room, having grown tired of the uncomfortable repeating footage of Spark incapacitating Anomaly.

"I am not."

Ellie frowned. "But she came here to talk to you. You're not going to honor that request?"

"Of course not. She's a child who has no idea of what she's gotten herself into. I will leave her down there to think. I would assign her to the docile project, but since she's a Cure that won't work. Our creator was irritatingly prophetic at times."

Ellie was surprised at this scorn her mother expressed at their creator.

"When are you going to let her go?"

"I can't, Ellie. She will stay there for now. I will think of something eventually."

Ellie put the chair back in its place under her desk. She thought over her mother's words, tried to form an opinion, fighting with herself over what was right.

"And I won't let you see her."

Ellie looked up, her eyebrows raised.

"You don't understand how bad they are, even after everything I've shown you recently. I will not let her poison your mind any further."

* * *

"Of course it came to this. _Of course_ it did. Look at this!" Vilmar gestured at the television angrily, which was replaying the news item about Cure Anomaly for the umpteenth time. "It was only a matter of time until she'd use docile people for her own purposes. And look how it's left that girl! She might be dead for all we know."

"She looked alive when we got to the hospital," Gogo mumbled quietly, picking at a loose thread in her jeans as she sat on the sofa next to Vilmar's laptop.

Vilmar was too focused on his tirade to acknowledge her comment.

"How many dociles do we know?" He turned his head quickly, with a manic look in his eyes, his glasses slightly askew. Gogo thought for a moment.

"My counselor in school is one. And my maths teacher. One of the people we saw at the facility when the Cures saved us got turned into one, but I don't know who they were." She shrugged.

"A couple, I guess."

Vilmar grabbed his laptop and threw himself down on the sofa. He hadn't listened to any word she said. _Didn't know it was a rhetorical question,_ Gogo thought to herself. His hands shook as he feverishly started typing, opening and closing different tabs, and then reopening them again.

"What are you doing?" She asked.

"If she uses one docile," he said, while typing away in a program Gogo recognised but hadn't seen in a while, "who's to say if- no, _when_ she will use more?"

Gogo stared at his screen and tried to read it but he might as well have been writing in hieroglyphs, she couldn't make anything of it.

"Are you trying to turn off the docile chunk thingie?" She guessed. _What the hell are those things called anyway?_

"If I tried to do that, I am certain she will find out before I've written even more than a single string," Vilmar answered, his face glued to the screen as he continued writing.

Gogo studied the program some more. Why did it give her such a nostalgic feeling?

Then it caught her.

"Wait, isn't that the program you wrote Luzia's code in?"

"Clever girl," Vilmar responded. It became clear to Gogo she wasn't going to get much more out of him, so she got up from the sofa and stretched.

"I'm going to bed. Don't stay up too late, you giant nerd."

Vilmar mumbled a vague _"bon'uit"_ and Gogo was pretty certain he wasn't going to take her advice.

* * *

When she came into the living room the next morning, she found Vilmar asleep on the sofa, his laptop dangerously close to edging off his knees.

"Seriously," she said quietly as she put the laptop on the coffee table. She tapped Vil on the knee, but when it didn't wake him she pushed him with one of her feet.

Vilmar groaned and rubbed his head.

"Good morning sunshine," Gogo said flatly.

" _Dieu_!" He pushed Gogo out of the way to grab his laptop. "Did I save?"

"What is with you all of a sudden? You've turned into a total zombie since yesterday!"

He didn't respond. He went back to doing exactly what he was doing the night before. Gogo rolled her eyes.

"Fine, ignore me! You can make your own breakfast."

 _[Saiko: Has anyone heard anything from Rae since yesterday? She doesn't respond to my messages]_

 _[Gogo: Nope]_

 _[Nana: I haven't. I wouldn't be surprised if Hera won't allow her to use her phone. I don't think we should worry about it, for now.]_

 _[Saiko: Ok so when do you propose is the right time to start panicking because I am about to rn]_

Gogo admitted to herself she hadn't really thought about Rae since getting home. She'd been avoiding social media altogether, not at all interested in seeing all the hate she was sure the Cures were getting now because of Hera. Throwing a robot into a garbage compactor is one thing, but Anomaly had been human…

 _[Gogo: Have you heard anything about Yon, Nana?]_

 _[Nana: I'm actually at the hospital right now. Yon's parents aren't in Clairewood so me and my family are kind of her family now…]_

 _[Nana: She's in a coma. But she's stable. They can't tell us anything else right now.]_

 _[Saiko: I'm so sorry Nana]_

 _[Nana: It's ok. If anything it's a motivator that we've got to do something really soon.]_

Something. Always that "something". Gogo's finger hovered over her phone's keyboard, but she didn't know what to say. At least, she didn't know how to say it nicely.

Nana had told them Bit knew of a place in the forest that made him so scared he immediately fled. Obviously that's where they should go next! Kick in the door and drag out whatever Hera really was and stomp it into the forest dirt.

 _I should say that._ Rae wasn't there to tell her "tsunami", but she was pretty sure that she wasn't being too rash at this moment. If she just said something along the lines of "Hey, remember that thing Bit saw in the forest," that'd get the ball rolling. No mention of ripping Hera to shreds or Ellie- God, what were they even going to do about Ellie?

"Gogo?"

Vilmar's voice came from the living room.

"Oh, you remembered you have a sister?" she replied pointedly. "What is it?"

"Could you come over here for a second?"

She got up, but didn't immediately walk over. "I'm not making you breakfast."

"It's not about that, I want to show you something." _Fine_ , Gogo thought to herself, and she walked into the living room.

The tv was on, and Vilmar was still in the same spot on the sofa with his laptop, though he looked a lot more awake now.

"Wow, she's still airing that, huh." The headline had changed, and the voice-over was saying something new, but it was still that same old footage. With their masks on, they did look kind of intimidating, holding Anomaly back while a faceless Spark tore out the docile device.

"You know, if this even works, all she's doing is making people afraid of the Cures, not making them trust her more. Everyone will just be more scared in general," she said as she studied the footage, something she'd been avoiding since the actual event.

"Exactly," said Vilmar, "and I'm not going to let that happen." He dramatically pressed a key on his laptop, and the tv changed.

A girl popped up on the screen.

"Hoi!" She said, waving.

Gogo let out a small shriek of both fear and confusion. "Who's that?" The girl smiled.

From the way she moved, and the general style of her model, Gogo could tell she was based on the same system Luzia was.

But she looked nothing like Luzia. Her hair was a gradient of deep blue and purple, with two strands of her fringe sticking out sideways, making her look very playful. Her eyes were blue, like her hair, though they had bright cyan shimmers in the bottom, that made it look like they glowed.

Her outfit was a simple light blue hoodie with a big white cat face on it. She wore a giant pair of white headphones, which had cat ears. The cord wasn't plugged into anything, and instead it stuck out from under her hoodie and moved on its own, not unlike a tail.

Gogo felt her cheeks grow hot when she realised the cat on her hoodie had the same expression Cure Static's cat had.

"I didn't really have time to give her a super detailed model so she looks a bit simple. But it's her mind that counts," Vilmar explained.

"My name is Kanon. It's nice to meet you!" The girl smiled at Gogo. Maybe it was her cool colours, or her half-closed, sleepy eyes, but Kanon breathed a certain calmness that contrasted greatly with Luzia's bubbly personality that Gogo had found so grating.

Gogo nodded and stretched her lips, hoping it looked like a friendly smile.

"Vilmar, what are you doing…? Aren't you worried the same thing will happen again?" She whispered, side-eyeing Kanon, who now held one of her hands up to her chin and studied Gogo's movements.

"I can't make sure Hera won't corrupt Kanon like she did Luzia, but I sure as hell tried. Kanon's security measures are about five times as strong as Luzia's were. I wrote everything from scratch in the hopes that it'll confuse Hera, or at least take longer to break in."

Kanon clenched her fists and a devious smile appeared on her face. "I will do my best!" She said. _She's pretty cute, I guess,_ Gogo thought.

"It doesn't really matter if Hera does get to her. If she gets ten seconds of screen time, I'll be satisfied. That's enough to get the message across," Vilmar said darkly, eyes locked on his new creation.

Gogo felt something sink, deep inside the pit of her stomach. It was as if molten lava was pouring down, now sitting idly, inciting a feeling of deep worry and anxiety.

"Whatever it is you're planning on, please don't do it," she said, her throat scratchy.

"Genie, I am one of the few people who _can_ do something. It's my duty."

Gogo turned to him. "You're just one guy!"

It didn't really hit her until she'd said it. She felt tears welling up in her eyes, to her embarrassment, and quickly tried to wipe them away with such force her eyelids hurt.

"I haven't seen mum and dad in almost a year," she began, "and I'm so worried about mémère, alone, in the hospital, when she needs us," an involuntary sob escaped her, "and now you. I almost lost you already to that stupid docile program, and now you want to do this?"

When she uncovered her eyes to look at her brother, he was little more than a vague shape. She blinked a few times. _Did I just blind myself?_ Inadvertently she rubbed her eyes some more, trying to clear up the fogginess she created by rubbing them in the first place, until she felt two hands on her arms that gently moved them away from her face.

The shape became clearer, and she saw Vilmar smiling down on her. He held the palms of her hands, and that rare moment occurred where Gogo felt small. She looked at his purple sweatshirt, unable to look him in the eyes any more. When did he start adding so much purple to his wardrobe?

"I will be okay," he said. "And you will be okay, too. You're so strong, Genie."

"She'll know it was you," Gogo said to Vilmar's midriff.

"She will. But I'm not afraid of her. And neither are you."

She sighed and dropped her hands. "I can't stop you, can I." Vilmar shook his head.

"I will put Kanon on every screen in the city. And she will tell everyone, _remind everyone_ , how good the Pretty Cure have been to us. And it doesn't matter if Hera cuts her off, it doesn't matter if she doesn't get more than a few words out, what matters is that they know they're not alone."

She looked up at him. He smirked. A thousand thoughts went through her mind. If Vilmar went through with his plan, he put himself in danger. But she knew she couldn't stop him. He was still her senior by ten years, and nowhere near as brash. He wasn't gonna listen to his hotheaded little sister. But she didn't want to lose him, she couldn't, not him too. What could she do?

...She knew of one thing, but it'd probably greatly upset the other Cures. Rae would tell her "no, don't," and then try to take her place. Nana would chastise her for making a decision again without talking it over with the other Cures, and she wasn't sure what Saiko would do, but she thought of one of the scowls she'd given Gogo after the trash compactor incident.

But this didn't concern them; not really. This concerned her family. The only relative she had left in this city. She didn't want to see him be turned into a mindless drone, or possibly worse. And so she made her decision.

She took a step back. She felt sad, and a little worried, but she had made up her mind.

"I'll go with her."

Vilmar gave her a puzzled look.

"Oh, that's nice of you," Kanon said.

Gogo took a deep breath, and pulled her phone from her pocket.

"Pretty Cure, recharge."

Vilmars eyes grew wide as the phone glowed an unnaturally bright violet.

"Activate!"

A flash of purple enveloped the room briefly, and Cure Static had taken Gogo's place.

A weak "wow," was all Vilmar could manage.

"Oh shut up," said Static, as she planted her hands on her hips. "You knew. You knew from the start, you big liar!" She gave him a soft kick against his shin, and he laughed.

"I had my suspicions, but I didn't _know._ I'm beyond proud of you, Genie."

"Thanks, but I don't feel like we've done much. Be proud of me once we've gotten rid of Hera. How about you activate whatever makes Kanon appear all over the city, and I'll make sure she'll be okay." _After I've figured out how to do that,_ Static thought to herself.

* * *

Vilmar told Static that Kanon would be on the Seyfert building, just like Luzia had been, and that that would probably be the best place to appear alongside her. He also gave her his laptop, which housed Kanon's original files, while he chose to work from his home computer in case anyone tried to interfere with Kanon's program. That way they could easily restore her in case they needed to, he told her.

While she was traveling to the center of town, she nervously called Nana via her bracelet.

When Nana picked up, she had very dark spots under her eyes, and her gaze seemed slightly out of focus.

"Hey Gogo," Nana said sleepily. Then she frowned. "Wait, why are you transformed?"

"Okay, you're gonna be really angry, but I'm in the city to help my brother with his anti Hera propaganda," Static explained. She immediately regretted her wording.

"...What?" Nana seemed more confused than upset.

"Ok, well, I don't have time to go into detail, but basically Vilmar knows I'm Static. He already knew, but I kinda transformed in front of him so he really knows now. And Hera might kill him for what he's about to do, and I'm not gonna let that happen, so I thought it was more important to protect him than to keep my identity a secret. So there."

She nearly jumped into a window; she'd lost track of her surroundings while trying to explain her actions.

"What's he gonna do?" Nana asked.

"You'll see. If you want, you can join me. I'm gonna be at Seyfert corp."

Nana nodded while looking at something Static couldn't see. "Yeah, I'll do that. Be safe, Static." with that, she hung up.

 _Did she even catch anything of what I said_ , Static wondered. Nana looked too out of there, and her answers had been very vague. She probably didn't get any sleep after everything that happened with Yon, Static figured. Maybe it'd be best if she didn't come… Now she wished she'd said that.

But it was too late now, Static had made it to Seyfert. She'd taken her old spot on a nearby skyscraper, the same one where she'd waited for Circuit, Volt, and Spark, the first time all four of them worked together as a team. The same one where they'd confronted Luzia. If she was honest with herself, she didn't like being here. Thinking of Luzia made her feel very uncomfortable. The molten lava swirled in the pit of her stomach.

* * *

She let Vilmar know she'd made it to Seyfert, and then waited.

"Oh, there you are!" A booming voice came from behind Static, and she turned around to look at the building. There she was, Kanon, gargantuan, sleepy, and smiling down on Gogo, while she waved at her slowly. "Let's do this," she continued, and then her gaze shifted to looking straight ahead.

" _Hello, everyone. I'm sorry I'm interrupting whatever you're watching, but I bet you're all tired of seeing that scene of the Cures and Anomaly being shoved down your throat anyway, so I hope you don't mind."_

Wow. Kanon's vocabulary was a lot less flowery than Luzia's. Static grinned.

" _I'm telling you nothing new when I say that Hera has been forcing you to believe the Pretty Cure are violent and evil. I bet you're all tired of the overused footage of them stepping out of line, when really they were just trying to help us. Remember this bit?"_ Kanon quickly glanced at Static, and a rapid _"sorry,"_ escaped her lips, as she briefly disappeared to be replaced by the scene at the pier. Static felt nothing, looking at it. She regretted her actions at the pier greatly, but the footage of the event left her feeling numb, now. It was almost like it wasn't really her, in that footage, and it wasn't really Ellie being thrown, or Volt bounding at her in the aftermath.

" _It's easy to manipulate footage if you have full control over it,"_ Kanon said as she reappeared. _"Here's some more footage from the same day, which Hera conveniently didn't show you."_

It showed the Cures helping fishermen and carefully putting them on the pier. Static saw herself crouched over a man and patting him on the shoulder, making sure he was alright. _Oh yeah, I did do that,_ she thought to herself. Thanks to Hera's interference she'd remembered that day as nothing more than heaving Ellie over her head and throwing her, over and over, until the sun went down and she was back home, full of regret. But that's not what happened. She had been there, and she had forgotten the true events; how must it have felt for people who weren't there? The lava rose slightly. She felt squeamish.

Kanon reappeared. _"I bet you weren't surprised to see that, were you? That's probably why Hera made you watch it over and over. Now onto last night. I'm not going to replay_ that _clip, I'm sure you've seen it, maybe you were even watching it right before I showed up!"_ she chuckled.

" _But lookie what I found. I'm very smart, so I got into the same cameras Hera did, last night. Look at this!"_

Static watched the fight of the four Cures with Anomaly. It was evident that they were defending themselves against her. The video ended with Anomaly falling to the ground, and a few short clips from different security cameras of the Cures hurrying to the hospital, with Circuit carefully carrying Yon in her arms.

" _How evil. They stopped a brainwashed human from attacking them, and took her to the hospital to make sure she'd be alright."_ Kanon shook her head. _"How could they."_

Kanon's image flickered briefly. It sent a jolt through Static's spine. But she didn't disappear.

" _Everyone,"_ she continued, her hands clenched into fists and held in front of her chest, _"please don't forget who the real enemy is. And who the real heroes are!"_

Static bit her lip. She wasn't sure if flat out calling Hera "the enemy" was really a good idea.

" _Heroes? The enemy?"_ a new voice boomed through the plaza. Static got off the building, and flew nearer to Kanon. She saw people had gathered around, and they were looking around for the source of the voice.

She knew that voice.

That sweet, optimistic, irritating, saccharine voice that used to resound through her living room.

Luzia.

She summoned her hammer, and looked around for a sign of the virus idol. Kanon didn't. Kanon knew where Luzia was. _"She's trying to erase me,"_ she said to Static. Was this still being broadcast?

" _Don't make me laugh."_

People pointed. Static turned around.

One side of the building now showed Luzia, the other side Kanon. Luzia looked annoyed. She leaned on a gloved hand and stared blankly ahead. The lava inside Static's stomach rose at an alarming rate, she thought she was going to be sick.

" _I'm glad you joined us!"_ Kanon said cheerily. Luzia did not respond.

" _You are the living proof that Hera is bad. All you did was cause misery. And now she's reactivated you, after all you did. Would a good warden really do that?"_

Static heard the people below her yell, but couldn't make out what they were saying.

" _Now now,"_ Luzia responded. She straightened up. _"That's no way to talk to your older sister."_ She knew. Static didn't know if it was because of her nature as a virus, or the fact that Luzia and Kanon were built in the same program, born from the same code, but Luzia knew of Kanon's origin. She suddenly shifted her eyes to Static. The hot lava froze at once.

" _Oh, hello Gogo. How have you been?"_

Kanon's face fell. She looked at Static, her eyes sad and dim. _"I'm sorry,"_ she repeated. _"She already knew."_

"I know," Static replied. She took a deep breath, and then moved a little, so she was face to face with Luzia. She was vaguely aware that more and more people were gathering below her.

"I don't care if you tell them. I don't care if you tell _her_ , either. It doesn't matter anymore, because my brother already knows. Do you remember my brother? He made you." Static heard her own voice crack, but cleared her throat and continued on. She pointed at the building that housed Luzia's giant form. "He made you in there. You were his biggest project, and he was so proud of you. How you learned new words, how you learned to dance by watching people. You had so much energy, and whenever he was down in the evening, I'd catch him talking to you and you'd cheer him up without fail. And now…" She took another deep breath. She felt a lump in her throat, one she couldn't swallow down. "And now she's turned you into this." Luzia stared blankly back at Static. Now she'd fulfilled her purpose of informing Hera of a Cure's identity, she seemed empty, void.

" _Rae Rivers, Gogo Barteau. Who are the other two, I wonder,"_ she said in a flat voice. It sounded nothing like Luzia. But the voice wasn't altogether alien to Static. She tightened her grip on the hammer. "You're not Luzia," she said, holding back tears. "You stopped being Luzia the moment she forced my brother to give you up. The moment YOU forced him to give her up!" Static took a swing at Luzia's reflection, shattering the glass windows on several floors. Luzia's face now had only one eye, the rest of her face replaced by darkness where there no longer were any screens to materialize it on.

" _You are so violent. You are not fit to protect this city,"_ Luzia went on in the strange voice.

" _She is passionate, and you're a monster. You're nothing more than the corruption of someone's life work. People know this. You can't fool them any longer, Hera."_ Kanon had been quiet for a while, so Static had forgotten she was there and was surprised when she spoke up.

" _I'm not Hera,"_ Luzia retorted. Static scoffed loudly. Luzia ignored her. _"People know the truth. Why don't you look down and ask them yourself?"_

An uneasy feeling crept up on Static. She was almost afraid to look down, but forced herself to.

There they were. Hundreds of people. All looking up at Static, Luzia and Kanon. The crowd was very diverse, and at first Static was confused as to why Luzia wanted her to look at them, until she noticed. Black spots, on each and every forehead. Silently they stared up at her.


	22. Chapter 22: Control

**22\. Control**

"Can you follow this with your eyes, please."

Mia slowly moved her right index finger from left to right. The disembodied head on the table followed it perfectly. Too perfectly. Mia put her hand down.

"That was good. A little too good, in fact. That was creepy." She gave the head an apologetic smile, to which the head didn't react, it simply continued staring up at her.

Mia thought for a moment. She wasn't sure how to fix this. How could she make a robot move in a more humane manner, when technically her perfect robotic senses were superior?

"Why was it creepy?" The head asked.

"Because that's not what it looks like when a human moves their eyes," Mia explained.

"I apologise," the head said.

Mia shook her head. "Don't, I built you. It's on me."

She tapped her lip with her index finger.

"I think there will always be something off about you, no matter how realistic I make you. You just can't fool the human brain on these things."

"Maybe it is because I am just a head," the head proposed. Mia laughed. It might be onto something there.

"Maybe it is. But putting a body together will take ages… I wanted to perfect your mind first."

"I see," the head said. She never argued. She was a machine, after all.

Mia had made her inquisitive, so she would learn by asking questions, and that had worked well so far, though at times it felt like she had a small child nagging at her with such impossible questions as "why is red called red" and "Why do I have a nose when I can't smell".

Her name was Beatrice. She was the second iteration of Mia's biggest project yet, after Hera. The first version was named Alice, and she had just been a program on a computer that would respond to questions and tasks Mia gave her. Hera didn't quite understand the use of building Alice, with her around.

Hera was Mia's assistant, in a way. Originally developed for Seyfert Corporation, the company Mia worked for, Hera was meant to be an AI controlled shield. She was meant to keep anything dangerous outside of Clairewood, or in a worst case scenario, _inside_ of Clairewood. If the Hera project was a success, Seyfert would try to sell the idea to others, so she could eventually cover more ground, potentially entire countries. Right now she was a very well kept secret.

But the project was put on hold, as testing with the shield had proven to be difficult, seeing as they needed to put Clairewood on lockdown to test it and they'd never been given clearance to do so. So right now, Hera's shield only worked in theory. Mia was almost certain it would work practically as well, everything to activate it was set in place, after all, but since she wasn't allowed to test it, the project wasn't officially finished.

So now Hera was her assistant. She lived in a computer in the treehouse Mia lived in, by herself, kept company only by artificial intelligence. She'd programmed Hera to act like a doting mother. She remembered this had unsettled the project leaders at Seyfert a little, but she thought it was charming. Now the project was on hold it didn't matter anyway. If they'd ever pick it up again Mia would just strip the motherliness out of her personality. Secretly she hoped that day wouldn't come.

It was nice to have someone around who (pretended to, as best they could) cared about you. She'd been quite lonely ever since she moved to Clairewood, which had been five years ago now. She didn't like to think about it, but her best years had been a long time before that, when she was still a teen. And not being able to talk about why with others, or share similar experiences had created a rift between Mia and others. Or maybe she'd created the rift herself.

"Will you give me a new name when you've finished my body?" Beatrice ripped Mia from her thoughts.

"Yes, I think I will. I renamed you after you became more than a program on a desktop, after all."

"What will you call me?" Mia thought for a moment.

"I don't know. What would you like to be called?" She smirked. Beatrice didn't have the capability to 'like' anything, but it would be interesting to see how she would answer this question.

"I was Alice. Now I am Beatrice. How about…" Beatrice stopped for a moment to gather information. "Caroline, Cassandra, Catherine, Charlotte, Chloe, Claire, Courtney, Cynth-"

"Okay, okay!" Mia laughed. "You caught onto my naming convention for you really fast. Maybe I made you too smart!"

She playfully tapped Beatrice on the nose. Beatrice didn't react. _I definitely need to make her less creepy_ , Mia thought to herself.

* * *

"Good morning, sunshine! It is seven AM and it's time for you to get up!" Hera's cheery voice filled Mia's bedroom.

"Mmm," Mia grunted. She hated mornings. She dragged herself out of bed, where Hera had already started making her coffee. She had to make the toast herself, or at least put the bread in the toaster. Hera could control all of the machinery in the treehouse, but she didn't have any appendages so she couldn't move anything. Mia had mainly done this out of convenience, as having a set of robotic arms in every room would just get in her way.

"At ten you have a meeting at Seyfert corp. They want you to take a look at Project AIdol. And the afternoon is booked for testing with Caroline."

"Thank you, Hera," Mia mumbled. She took a sip from her coffee, and burned her lips. She cursed.

"Oh no! Did I make it too hot? Do you need some ice water?"

Without waiting for an answer the icemaker on Mia's fridge activated and filled a glass with ice cubes.

"No, that's alright Hera. Nothing wakes you up quite like searing the skin of your lips off."

"Are you sure?" Hera said, her tone making it clear she was convinced Mia was most definitely not sure.

Mia rolled her eyes, but smiled. "If you insist." She grabbed the cup from the front of the fridge, and saw Hera had filled it to the brim with ice cubes. Maybe she should just wait until they'd melted a little instead of adding water. She sat back down and as she held the ice cubes to her lips she had to admit it did give her some relief.

"That was a good idea. Thank you Hera."

Hera laughed warmly. "I told you! What did you want to make for dinner tonight? I'd recommend something light, as you've ordered pizza twice this week already and I'm getting a little worried about your health. You need your vegetables, and you're drastically under the recommended amount at the moment."

Mia chuckled. "And they told me off for making you motherly. Can you believe that?"

"Despicable," Hera replied with scorn. Maybe a little too much scorn.

* * *

Mia didn't really like testing Caroline. Mainly because she had to admit she'd done a poor job at building her a body. She had tried to make Caroline look cute by making her head slightly disproportional to her body so she had a more childlike physique, but in the end this just made it impossible for Caroline to stand without holding her head up with her hands.

She could walk, but her walk looked unnatural. This was in part because Caroline was holding up her head, and in part because she didn't bend her knees the right way.

"It is easier for me to move like this," she replied when Mia asked her why.

"And what if I ask you to walk like me, even though it's more difficult," Mia proposed, and she did a little demonstrative walk.

Caroline dropped her hands and promptly fell over. She then started walking into the carpet, her body writhing awkwardly against it as she bent her knees.

 _She's no longer creepy_ , Mia thought. _She's horrifying_.

* * *

"I think you should cancel that project," Hera said as Mia ate dinner. She'd made a stir fry with lots of different vegetables, which had earned her praise from Hera.

"It's clear it's not going to work. I can tell she frightens you."

"That's because I haven't figured out how to make her work right, yet. That's not Caroline's fault," Mia retorted.

"What is she for? You say she's just an experiment. But she has guarding capabilities. She can't use them because she's incompetent, but I see them in her programming."

Mia looked up, brows furrowed.

"Hera, I told you I don't like it if you go snooping around in my work."

"I'm just trying to keep you safe. That is what you made me for. What if this thing turns against you? She's made of metal, you're a squishy human, she'd overpower you. And I'm inside of a computer. I could do nothing to defend you. This is a bad idea, Mia."

Mia had to suppress a laugh at Hera calling her a 'squishy human'.

"No need to worry about me, Hera. I know how to deactivate her with a simple word; but it won't ever come to that." Even if it was all programmed into her and not real, Mia felt so loved when Hera fussed over her. _Maybe that's unhealthy._

"But why can she fight?"

"Well," Mia began, and she cleared her throat. Gathering her words she realised the idea sounded a little stupid when spoken aloud.

"I thought back to when I was a kid, and how me and my friends protected the people we loved, and how well that worked. And then I thought, what if I make something similar for Clairewood? But instead of girls it'll be robots, so nobody can get hurt." She took the object she always carried with her from her pocket and put it on the table. Even though it had been in her possession for over sixteen years, it still looked pristine. Magic can do that, she supposed.

Out of the three of them, she'd always been the most dedicated. Mia, Mai and Ami. It almost seemed too perfect. They'd jokingly asked their guide, a little duck with a ridiculously large bow around his neck if he'd picked them for their names, which he fervently denied. Ribbon Pretty Cure… It had been an amazing time, frightening sometimes, but always exciting. Mia had never felt so close to people before. And after it was all done, she never felt as close to anyone ever after. She briefly wondered how Mai and Ami were doing. _I guess thinking we'd be friends forever was naive_ …

"I'm gonna construct a new body for Caroline," she stated.

"I just can't seem to convince you," Hera sighed. Mia slid the object back into her pocket, and briefly wondered if it still worked.

* * *

"That's a lot better, isn't it?"

"I can hold up my head with just my neck!" the android girl exclaimed. Well, cat girl. _I can't believe I've actually done that. Mai and Ami would laugh if they saw._

Mia loved cats. Whenever she'd design a new machine, she'd always put cat ears on it, or give it whiskers, or a swishy tail. Mostly as a joke, but in the end she'd usually end up preferring its design over any of the others. It was a good thing she didn't have the final say in that most of the time.

But now she did. So Delphina, Alice's fourth iteration, had cat ears. And her skin was a pearlescent white. It made her look less like a real human, but that also made her look less eerie, so Mia decided it was a good decision. Her skin had looked a lot less glittery the night before, Mia observed. Maybe that was just a trick of the eye. It had been well after midnight before Mia stopped tinkering on the new body, to Hera's worried annoyance.

Mia smiled at Delphina. "How do you feel?" she asked her.

"Good," Delphina answered, "no bugs detected." Mia let out a small "wow"; none at all?

"No critical ones," Delphina added after a moment.

That made more sense.

* * *

Testing with Delphina was a lot nicer than with Caroline. She could walk around properly for one, and because of her less realistic appearance she didn't look so disturbing whenever she malfunctioned which, thankfully, happened very little.

A few days after making Delphina, Mia constructed Bit. Bit looked like a modified Roomba. Except he could hover, and speak. He had cat ears and whiskers, because Mia made him and nobody could tell her not to. Bit was built with the same systems as Delphina was, and whenever she updated Delphina, she updated Bit. He was like a backup of Delphina's personality, though Mia couldn't help herself and also gave Bit one of his own.

"I'm a fairy!" Bit would exclaim happily. "I help Precure."

"Do you miss your teenage days, Mia?" Hera asked her one day after she'd tinkered with Bit's programming. "Why does that little drone think he's a fairy?" Hera sounded worried. Like a mom who suspected her child had tried something bad behind her back.

"Because my Cures need a fairy. I had a fairy when I was a Cure. It's very comforting to have someone around who knows exactly what's going on when you're suddenly given amazing powers and told you have to save the world," Mia explained. " _Potentially_ have to save the world, of course," she added.

"Why can't I look at his programming?" Hera followed up, seemingly ignoring Mia's previous answer.

"You can get into Delphina, they have the same program, does it matter?" Mia answered evasively.

"Well, I-"

"-Besides, I've told you before I don't like it when you snoop around in my work." Mia felt a rush of heat rapidly shoot through her. She'd never cut Hera off before. Was she seriously arguing with something she built herself?

Surprisingly, Hera did not speak up again after that. Mia had expected her to fight more, how could she keep Mia safe if Mia kept secrets from her, after all. _Why_ was she keeping secrets from Hera, anyway…?

Delphina made progress rapidly. She barely malfunctioned, was highly inquisitive and eventually capable of deducing things by herself without Mia's help. Guessing things right greatly excited her. Initially, this made Mia happy, but after a while, she got worried. Delphina was developing too quickly. Too independently. Her progress wasn't natural. And then there was Bit, who after a few weeks started denying that he was a robot.

"I'm a fairy!" He would staunchly say, even when Mia had opened his head to install new hardware. "I help Pretty Cure. I can do magic!"

Mia frowned.

"You can do magic? Where'd you pick up that idea?" Bit swiveled his face around to look at her, causing Mia to nick her fingers on some of the jagged circuit boards inside when she didn't pull away quickly enough.

"Precure fairies do magic. They help their Cures transform! How could they do that without a fairy?"

"Oh," Mia began, rubbing her hand, "that's true for me and the other Pretty Cure, but the ones I'm gonna make won't use magic to transform. Remember these?"

She grabbed one of the five bracelets on the table next to Bit and showed it to him.

"These have the programming to switch the android Cures from regular girls to Precure warriors. But they're not magic." she smiled at Bit.

Then she realised Bit spoke of something he should have no knowledge of whatsoever.

"Wait… I never told you about the magical nature of Pretty Cure," she stated. Bit's eyes turned into happy triangles.

"I know! I learned when you gave me magic."

"I did what?" Mia put down the bracelet, and noticed when it caught the light that it had that same unnatural shimmer Bit and Delphina had on its white surface.

"Yes! Like the Ribbon Commune in your pocket."

Mia grabbed the magical device and put it on the table. She looked at it and traced its white surface with her finger. She opened it up, and studied the giant silvery button in the middle, with the yellow ribbon above it. She remembered pressing the button and pulling the ribbon loose would initiate her transformation into a Cure… But she didn't want to do that now. She closed it again, and it caught the light.

"Wait a second..." she held up the Commune in the sun, and it shimmered in all colours imaginable to man. Just like Bit, Delphina and the bracelets.

"But… how?" She said, more to herself than Bit.

"Well, you're a legendary Precure, right? Maybe your magic rubs off on things," Bit said cheerfully.

Mia wished she had her fairy with her now. She had about a million questions for him.

* * *

To Mia's surprise, Hera had taken a liking to Delphina. Bit not so much. Mia figured it was because Delphina resembled a human, and Hera liked to coddle humans.

"Is Hera my big sister?" Delphina asked one day.

"I think she's more like your mom," Mia said with a chuckle, "Hera's not capable of being snarky like older sisters usually are."

"Oh, I'd like that very much," Hera chimed in. She'd grown a little quieter after Mia had cut her off. This had surprised Mia. The sense of hurt Hera was displaying was a little too human for Mia's programming capabilities.

"Can I call Hera 'mom'?" Delphina asked, her eyes glittering.

Mia took a moment to answer.

"Uh, if you'd like. I guess there's no harm in that."

"Yay!" Delphina clapped. "I've always wanted to have a mom."

Mia stared at her. "You what?"

"I have! It feels kind of weird, being turned off and on whenever you need me. I exist, and then I don't. And you made me, but you're not really my mom, are you, Mia? So it's nice I have someone who'll take care of my like a mother would."

She felt a shiver creep down her spine. "Delphina, where did you get this idea that you need a mother," she asked, trying to sound as neutral as possible.

Delphina shrugged. "I just thought it would be nice."

 _I just thought it would be nice._

Delphina couldn't feel. She simply wasn't capable of it. Neither was Bit, nor Hera. They could emulate feelings -that was something Mia had taken great care into implanting Hera with, actually-, but they couldn't have wants, or needs, or wishes all on their own, for the sole reason of "it would make me happy". Was this the influence of her magic…?

"Oh," Delphina said, and she gently twisted her foot on the carpet while looking down, "And I would like it if my next body didn't have cat parts. I'd like to look more human."

* * *

Mia didn't tell anyone at Seyfert about her discovery. Instead she became more of a recluse. The influence of magic on her work was both fascinating and terrifying.

She was working on the fifth iteration of Alice now, whom she'd named Elleanor. Elleanor had no catlike features, just like Delphina had requested. She did write an affinity for cats into Elleanor's programming, though. She couldn't take care of a semi-sentient robot that hated cats. Other than the lack of feline features Elleanor looked pretty much identical to Delphina; though her skin was silver instead of white.

And because she made progress so quickly, Mia was already working on the sixth version of her body, which she'd name Frederika once she would actually transfer Elleanor's mind into it. But for now, Frederika was a secret.

Hera doted on Elleanor. How clever she was, and how strong and how, to her, Elleanor was perfect.

Mia had her doubts about how genuine Hera's feelings were. They simply couldn't be for one, Hera's personality was just written code, after all. But Mia had the eerie feeling that Bit and Elleanor weren't the only projects of hers that had gotten 'infected' with her magic. She'd checked out Hera's code, and the way she had been behaving lately just didn't fit with her programming. She seemed to be acting completely independently at times.

Mia should have shut Hera down after she found this.

But she was afraid to.

Hera had control over Mia's entire house. If she noticed Mia so much as deleted a single word in her programming, she'd know what Mia was up to. And she didn't like to think what Hera would do, then. _I should have never used her for that insane 'docile' project_.

* * *

"If I'm going to protect the city someday, why can't I go outside?" Elleanor asked one day. Mia had stopped shutting her off whenever she wasn't working on Elleanor, per her request. Elleanor was kind and gentle, but Mia had to admit she'd grown to fear her own inventions.

She was used to having complete control over her surroundings, and having lost that control was very frightening. She'd considered more and more often to test if she could still transform into a Pretty Cure, but she wasn't sure how her robots would react to this.

"You'll be able to go outside soon," Mia answered Elleanor, as she clicked the little cat face on one of the Cure Bracelets back in place. "Once I've finished the Cure project, we'll enroll you in school and you can be like a regular kid. A regular kid who's also a superhero," she added quickly. It wasn't really her intention for the Alice project to ever involve her robots to go to school, but Elleanor had expressed a desire to go, and she behaved so much like a real teenager that Mia felt bad denying her the chance.

"We'll have to check it with Seyfert, though. And the school board. They might not agree with letting an android into their school."

Elleanor frowned.

"But I want to learn, and make friends, and stuff like that."

"Oh Elleanor… I'll always be your friend," Hera interjected.

"Mum! It's not cool to be friends with your mother," Elleanor pouted, and for a moment Mia wondered if there was a way to make Elleanor capable of blushing, as it seemed to be a feature she would get a lot of use out of.

"And me, too!" Bit said happily.

His head was open, and Mia had placed four of the five bracelets inside. Bit had a thin, antennae like 'arm' he could use to grab things with. He was currently holding one of the Bracelets and inspecting it.

Mia had mainly intended for him to use it for things he stored in the small, hollow compartment between his ears. He did look a little silly with his head open like that; he vaguely resembled a high-tech fruitbowl.

Mia got up from the table, and instructed Elleanor to do the same. She gestured for Elleanor to stick out her arm, and tried to put the Bracelet on until she realised it wouldn't go over Elleanor's hand.

She looked at her own invention, dumbfounded. "I can't believe I've made a mistake like this!" She looked at Bit, who was still holding one of the other Bracelets in his 'hand'. "And I've finished four of them already… How could I be so stupid!" She slapped herself on the forehead.

"Hey, don't worry, it's okay," Bit said soothingly. "Look!" He put the Bracelet away and closed his head, then flew over to Mia's hand holding the Bracelet she had tried to put on Elleanor's arm. As Bit looked at it, the bracelet started to glow, and briefly disappeared, then reappeared on Elleanor's arm. Elleanor studied her new trinket with curious wonder.

Mia just stared.

"That was pure magic, wasn't it," she sighed.

"Yes!" Bit replied cheerfully as he danced around Elleanor. "Aren't I a great fairy?"

"Exemplary," Mia replied.

After the shock of Bit's use of magic had worn off, Mia continued with her original tasks for the day. She made sure the Bracelet fit properly on Elleanor's arm, and then taught her the phrase that should activate the Pretty Cure 'transformation'.

It wasn't a real transformation, as it wasn't supposed to be magic; the phrase would activate a procedure within Elleanor herself that would alter her outward appearance and make her more suited to fighting and protecting, but in essence she was still the same robot girl with the same capabilities.

Mia couldn't pretend she was surprised however, when after uttering the phrase, Elleanor was engulfed in a blinding light, which when it faded away, left a proper Cure standing in her place. She still had silver skin though. But her hair had grown, and her clothes had changed to a red dress covered in white armor with a winged cat face in the middle of her chest. She wore a gauntlet on her right arm, with yet another cat face. It looked like the outfit Mia had designed for Elleanor's Cure version, except, like everything else she'd recently made, more _magical_ , with that same otherworldly white shimmer on her armor.

"Wow, so cool!" Elleanor exclaimed as she looked at herself. "So I can protect people like this, huh?"

Mia nodded weakly. "That's the idea." She quickly grabbed a chair and sat down, she was worried she might faint otherwise.

"Is this what you looked like when you were a Cure?" Elleanor asked.

"No. Not at all. My outfit was yellow, for one. I think Cures look different depending on the team they're in. Though you're alone for now." Mia rubbed her temples. "And I don't know if I could handle more sentient robots right now," she added quietly.

Elleanor's face fell. Bit landed on the table next to Mia, wearing a worried expression.

"Is everything okay?" Elleanor asked.

Mia debated for a second if she should be truthful. But what would lying help her? Everyone in her house was still her invention, why keep secrets? It felt weird to think of them as 'everyone', or 'someone', but every day it felt more and more wrong to refer to them like they were just objects.

* * *

She explained to Bit and Elleanor that she didn't know why they were able to do magic. Bit's reply of "because I'm a fairy!" wasn't particularly helpful, and Elleanor said she didn't understand her entire existence, being a machine to imitate humans and all, so she usually tried not to think about it too hard.

"Is it a bad thing?" Elleanor asked.

Mia leaned on the table with her elbow and studied Elleanor, who was still transformed. "I don't know. I think I'm mostly afraid because I don't know _how_ you ended up with these abilities. It's like I unwittingly infected you or something. I remember that when we beat the evil that was threatening the world fifteen years ago, even though we weren't really needed anymore, I felt like we'd still always be Precure. It had become a part of us. Not just symbolically, but…" she made a claw with her hand and held it over the core of her chest, "...Physically, too. After we unlocked our true potential as Cures I've always felt different. Otherworldly. I wondered if it meant anything and…" she dropped her hand. "I guess it did."

"But now you're retired!" Elleanor said with a smile. "You should let me do the hard work. This Precure stuff sounds really cool! I want to save people and fight evil and stuff."

Mia smiled wearily. "That's good, that's what I built you for. I should get on enrolling you into school. After I've cleared that with Seyfert, anyway."

* * *

Hera didn't speak to Mia until she was getting ready for bed. Elleanor was in her own room, which had been the guest room until very recently, when Elleanor asked Mia if she could have her own room; she could go into energy saving mode herself, which was like sleeping to her anyway, and being turned off and back on frightened her.

"I thought Elleanor was going to be a regular girl."

"Oh, hello Hera, how nice of you to join me again this evening. Is everything alright?" Mia tried to ignore the chill that ran down her spine.

"I am always 'alright'. Please don't avoid my question, Mia."

Mia clenched her jaws. She was holding her sheet, one leg already in the bed, but she decided to step out again, and smoothed over the sheets with shaking hands while trying to formulate an answer.

"We've been over this. She's both. She is a regular girl and also a Precure. Like I was when I was her age. I mean, her simulated age, she's only a few years old- Well, you know what I mean."

"It is unnecessary and dangerous. I don't want you to put my daughter in harm's way." Mia tried to open her bedroom door, and felt like she needed to use more force than normally. _I'm being paranoid. Everything's fine._

"Elleanor is brave and strong. And if she ever breaks, I'll just fix her up again. I've done that tons of times for you, remember Hera?" She moved to her workroom with what she hoped was a casual pace.

"I do. That actually ties directly into what I want to ask you."

"Does it?"

Mia sat down at her desk and started working on Bit. She turned on her laptop and connected him to it. She tried to write as fast as she could, but every other word she made a mistake. She tried to focus despite shaking breath.

"Why are you trying to replace me?"

 _...That's what she thinks this is? She's jealous?_

"I am not trying to replace you. You're a security AI that can shield an entire city. She's a superhero who thinks she's a teenage girl. There are no similarities."

She stopped typing for a moment, wondering if she should write into Bit's program that he should stay far, far away from the treehouse. _Better safe than sorry._

"You are correct. I can protect this city by myself. There is no need for Pretty Cure."

"Hera, your project has not been approved by my higher ups. I can't let you do that. Besides, Clairewood is doing perfectly well, it doesn't need to be put on lockdown."

She checked Bit to make sure he had the bracelets. She quickly added the unfinished fifth one to his collection. _It's better if he has it than that it stays here_ , she thought.

She checked over her newly written code and hoped she ironed out most of the bugs and typos, being certain there'd be at least a hundred left. No matter, as long as Bit knew his main goal, everything should be fine. She closed him, and her laptop.

There he sat, motionless. Asleep, Mia supposed. The next time anyone would try to get into his head, his new program would activate. Mia hoped that wouldn't be too soon, but she had little faith in that. She instinctively grabbed her pocket… And realised it was empty.

Where was her commune? _Damn, I left it in my cardigant!_

A loud scraping noise came from the only door in the room. Cloaked by darkness, Mia could see a vague shape moving closer.

"Hera, what is that?" Hera didn't answer.

She noticed a glimpse of what appeared to be cat ears on a humanoid figure that briefly caught the moonlight.

"There is no need for you, anymore, either, Mia."

* * *

Delphina's body slumped to the ground the moment she had forcibly moved Mia to the basement, under the treehouse. It was a largely empty space that Mia had stored old furniture in. She had initially planned to live down here, but felt it was too gloomy, what with there being no windows and being underground. There was a bed, a table and some chairs, and some old decorations and a small kitchen, with a door leading to a small bathroom with a shower and a toilet. It also contained a box of Mia's groceries that she had delivered to the house monthly. How long at Hera been planning this?

She looked at Delphina. Hera had hacked into her to make her move around. _I didn't even know she could do that. I should've shut her down when I had the chance…_

She knelt down besides Elleanor's old body, and opened the back of her head.

"I'm sorry," she whispered as she tore out most of its cables. Deciding that even if Delphina didn't have a mind, Hera could still make her move around as long as her machinery was intact, so she opened Delphina's middle and bent several of the circuit boards inside in half. That was a lot of money and hard work down the drain, but at least Hera wouldn't be able to use her own creation against her anymore. She put the body in a corner of the room and covered her with a blanket.

 _Now what._ She had already tried the door but it was clear Hera had put the house on lockdown, as it wouldn't budge. She sat down at the table.

"Hera."

She knew Hera could hear her. She got no answer. _You can't ignore me, you rogue brute, I made you_ , she thought furiously. "Are you planning on letting me die down here?" She put emphasis on the word 'die', knowing it should trigger something in Hera as she was built for the express purpose of avoiding harm coming to humans.

"No. You are in time-out. You've been very disrespectful to me, after all I've done for you. For now, your time-out is indefinite."

"You realise I'll starve if you leave me down here for more than a few days, right?" She said with a furrowed brow, staring up at the empty white ceiling.

"You won't. I'll make sure you'll get your groceries every month. You will be fine."

" _Every month_? How long did you plan on making this time-out last?!" Mia got up with such force that her chair fell down. The noise echoed through the room.

"I will show you that you shouldn't have tried to replace me, Mia. Well, I won't, because you won't see it, but rest assured, I've got everything under control."

* * *

She had been down in that basement ever since then. She wasn't sure how long it had been. Hera steadfastly delivered the shopping to her when she was asleep. She had attempted to stay awake in an attempt to escape when the door opened (how was Hera moving the shopping anyway?) but realised Hera wouldn't give her anything if she saw she was awake. Occasionally some magazines or books were included in the shopping, which helped Mia keep her sanity about her. _How kind of her to think of that_ , she thought.

One day, very recently, she woke up to find she had been brought something else than just her shopping. A person. She was quite tall, about a head taller than Mia, with blond hair and a fair complexion. She appeared to be asleep; knocked out possibly?

When she woke up, she complained of a headache. "I don't have any aspirin, Hera won't let me have it. All I can give you is this, I'm sorry," Mia said as she handed the girl a glass of water. After taking a sip, the girl took a look at Mia, and her eyes grew wide.

"Hey, I know you! You're Cure Bowtie, from Ribbon Pretty Cure!"


	23. Chapter 23: From the Heart

**23\. From the heart**

Mia gaped at the newcomer, she wasn't sure how to reply. How had she known? They'd always been so careful to hide their secret identities, and besides, it had been fifteen years; this girl looked like she couldn't be a day over twenty at most.

"Who are you," she managed to stammer out after a few seconds of loaded silence.

"I'm Rae Rivers. From Pink Diamond." Mia stared at her.

"No? Er, Sorella then?"

Mia narrowed her eyes. "Is that a school or something?" Rae laughed and got up.

"Maybe it's silly of me to assume you know them, you do seem a bit old for the type of music we make."

"I'm only thirty," Mia grumbled.

* * *

Rae took in her surroundings. She appeared to be in a bunker of some sort. There was a kitchen, a sofa, a bed and a bathroom, but the walls and floor were bare. The place looked unfinished. There were no windows, either.

"Where are we?" she asked the meek woman who had given her a glass of water when she awoke.

"We're underground. Hera locked me up in here, I don't know how long ago. My real home is the treehouse above it, but I suppose that's where she lives now, with Elleanor."

Rae turned to look at her. "Elleanor? You know about Ellie, then? And Hera, too?"

Mia scoffed. "Of course I do, I made them."

She walked over to the table and pulled out a chair. "I didn't plan for them to go rogue on me though. Interesting Elleanor is now going by Ellie. Suppose Elleanor is a mouthful but you wouldn't think an android would care about that." She gestured for Rae to come sit down with her. "So why did Hera throw you in here with me? You must be an extraordinarily bad egg for her to resort to that."

Rae took a while to sit down; she appeared to be mulling over her thoughts as she was going through the motions. Mia had no idea what the world outside had been like since Hera put her in here, so she wasn't sure what to expect of Rae.

Rae had finally decided on an answer after folding her hands together and straightening her shoulders, as if to postpone answering.

"I said I wanted to talk to her. She agreed, and now I'm here."

Mia frowned. "That's all? I doubt you'd be the first to do that, I mean-"

Mia stopped herself when she noticed the bangle on Rae's arm. "Oh."

Rae glanced down at her arm and quickly hid the Cure Bracelet with her hand instinctively, though Mia evidently had taken note of it already.

Mia smiled. "So Bit picked you, did he?"

"You know of Bit, too?" Realisation seemed to dawn on Rae before finishing her sentence. "Did you build him as well?"

Mia nodded, still smiling.

"I had a theory they were all made by the same person," Rae said.

"You must have a lot of questions," Mia said after Rae didn't speak for a moment.

"I do, I'm not sure where to begin," Rae admitted.

Mia nodded. "I'll tell you what I know, and then you can tell me what you know of the outside world. I've been cooped up here for so long now that I'm not even sure what day it is, or how long I've been here."

* * *

Mia told Rae of how she built Hera, what her original purpose was, and how she made the different prototypes for Elleanor. She told her of how she programmed Bit to stay away from the treehouse, and to go find the four Cures, and how somehow, her magic had leaked into her creations.

Then Rae told her about Clairewoods current state of affairs.

When Rae explained the Glitches, Mia shifted uncomfortably in her chair. "I was worried something like that might happen. Before I made the cure bracelets, I thought it might be useful if Elleanor could rebuild machinery to aid her, but when I realised that might mean she would tear apart very important machines that could lead to a lot of damage, I got rid of the chips that allowed her to do so. I gave them to Bit… I wonder how she regained access to them."

"Bit mentioned there were little 'bits' scattered around him when he woke up. Maybe Hera took them from him?" Rae offered. Mia nodded thoughtfully.

"I suppose that is possible. Anything else?"

She was shocked to learn Ellie got destroyed and had been replaced by Frederika.

"I don't know if Elleanor was ready for that, without any preparation for being transferred to a new body," Mia said.

"Her behaviour did change a little bit afterwards," Rae explained. "She became less temperamental, and at times she even seemed to question if she was doing the right thing when she caused havoc in the city."

Mia nodded. "That makes sense. Frederika is a more advanced system than Elleanor, she's more intelligent than Hera but I imagine Hera sabotaged her before she transferred her mind."

"She definitely still loves Hera vera much," Rae sighed as she absentmindedly played with the cat face on her bangle. Mia studied her as she did so.

"That's odd," she began, "that should trigger a transformation. Why is nothing happening?" Rae looked up at her.

"I need my phone to transform, I can't do it with just this thing. And they took my phone away, so there's not much I can do now." She held up her arm. "You made this thing, right? Is it not supposed to work like that?"

Mia signed at Rae to hold out her arm. Rae hesitantly did so, and Mia lightly held her by the wrist as she studied the bracelet.

"You shouldn't need your phone, it's supposed to work with just the bracelet, that's how I designed it… How odd. How irritatingly odd," she mumbled as she pried at the bracelet.

"When Bit found me he transformed my phone," Rae said, hoping this information might help Mia. She raised her eyes at Rae, her orange, thick-rimmed glasses low on her nose, but didn't say anything. Then she lightly shook her head.

"Is everything okay?" Rae asked. She had no idea what was going on in Mia's mind and it made her feel a little awkward.

"That little robot seems to have gotten a lot more magic than I thought," Mia said after a moment. "I don't know how he does these things. I mean, I know it's because of me, because I somehow 'infected' my machines with my magical powers, but I have absolutely no control over what they become capable of. It's very frightening, if I'm honest." She got up from the table and walked over to the kitchenette and opened a cabinet.

"He's been very good," Rae said. "He takes his job as a fairy very seriously and he always tries to help us. Honestly I'm very glad we have such a great fairy." She almost felt like she was defending Bit to his own creator. Even though she was aware that, technically, Bit wasn't alive, it felt wrong to hear someone talk about him like he was a mistake and shouldn't be the way he was.

"That's a relief," Mia said as she got up from the cabinet and walked back to the table, carrying a small pouch. When she sat back down and opened it Rae saw it was filled with screwdrivers and other tools.

"I'm going to try something, if you don't mind," Mia said as she gestured again for Rae to give her her arm.

Rae shrugged. "Sure. You invented this stuff, so I'm sure you know what you're doing," she quickly stopped herself from adding "right?" to the end of that sentence.

* * *

Spark, Volt and Bit found Static on top of Seyfert tower. Luzia had vanished, Hera seemingly having no more need for her. Kanon was still there, though she hadn't spoken in a while.

Vilmar clearly hadn't planned for this.

The tower was surrounded by dociles, some of which had gone into the building to get to the top floor, though Static had taken care to sabotage the door to the roof so they couldn't get on.

"Well, here it is, she's using her mind control garbage against us," Static began without greeting Spark and Volt. She was frantically walking back and forth on the roof, when she stopped Volt could see her hands were trembling. "What do we do? They're people, we can't attack them and purification doesn't work!"

Spark put a hand on Static's shoulder. This seemed to calm Static down a bit. "We're almost all together now, I'm sure we can figure something out," Spark said.

"I hope Rae is okay," Volt sighed. They hadn't heard a peep from her since her disappearance, and all three were very worried. Hera hadn't bothered to tell the citizens of Clairewood anything about her, so they weren't the only ones who were on edge. Hera seemed to be losing it, for as much as an AI can really lose its mind.

Spark turned to Bit.

"Do you have any idea what we could do about this?"

Bit thought for a moment. "Nothing Pretty Cure related," he said sadly. "You could try what you did with Yon, but that wouldn't be the safest option…"

Volt shuddered. "Yeah, I hope we can avoid that."

There were hundreds of people around the building, there was no way they could restrain them one by one to rip the device out of their heads.

"What about our ultimate forms?" Static said, her eyes lighting up. "Maybe that would be strong enough to override the docile program!" She looked at Spark, the only member of their team so far who had been able to activate her ultimate powers. Spark grimaced.

"I don't know how I did that. I was really focused on saving Yon, and then it just sort of… Happened."

"Maybe it activates when we want to save someone we really care about?" Volt proposed.

Static punched her hand with her fist, as if she just realised something.

"That might be it! When I was talking to Luzia about Vilmar, I felt… something. It was like a fire was burning inside of my core and it was growing bigger. But it went away when I smashed the windows with my hammer… I wonder why."

"That sounds similar to what I felt," Spark mused. "If only there was a way to activate it whenever I wanted." She looked at Bit, who panicked a little.

"I don't know!" He spluttered. "I'll probably know once you've all figured out how to access your ultimate powers, like with most of the powers you've gained over time. Sorry,"

"It's okay," Volt said, though she wasn't sure if she really thought it was okay when a group of dociles managed to break through Static's barricade and poured out onto the roof.

* * *

"I don't understand why it's not working," Mia said as she stared into the inner workings of Rae's Cure Bracelet. "When I first tested it Elleanor activated its powers no problem."

"Maybe it's because Elleanor's a robot?" Rae proposed.

Mia instinctively shook her head, though she wasn't sure Rae was wrong. "That shouldn't be a factor, the transformation was purely magical, it didn't work at all the way I had in mind when I built it."

"Well, in that case, is there really any point in you trying to tinker with it now…?"

Mia let out a frustrated sigh and let go of Rae's arm. "I guess not. Great, I thought you might be my ticket out of here with that Bracelet and all, but I guess now it's little more than a useless bit of plastic."

"It's plastic?" Rae said as she looked at her wrist carefully; she'd never seen the inside of the bracelet before.

"It was before my magic changed it, yeah. I don't know what it is made of now. Magic plastic I guess, or whatever." Mia leaned back in her chair, took off her glasses and started cleaning them with her sleeve in a rushed fashion. It was something she often did when she got angry or frustrated, in an attempt to avoid saying something she might regret in the heat of the moment.

Rae carefully closed the bracelet and looked at Mia. "Well, we can't give up now," she said hopefully. Mia looked up at her.

"Have you got any ideas, then?"

Rae thought for a moment. She didn't, really. Without her phone there wasn't much she could do, and the door into the room didn't look like it was accessible from the inside.

The room was silent, for a moment, aside from the occasional squeaking of Mia's chair as she rocked back and forth, still wiping her glasses.

"If all of your inventions got infected with your magic, maybe you can infect something in the room?" Rae proposed after a few minutes.

Mia placed her glasses back on her nose. "I don't have control over what gets affected," she stated matter of factly. "It seems it was limited to things I built, but that's really all I've got to go on."

"You've been an inventor for a while, right?" Rae asked.

"A while?" Mia scoffed again. "It's been my job ever since I left university. It's been my life's calling after I stopped being a Pretty Cure. Well, you don't really 'stop' being a Cure, but you know what I mean."

"Did everything you worked on get affected?"

"No, that only started happening in the last two years or so. I think Hera is the oldest project of mine that got infected, though I don't know when exactly that happened. She didn't become jealous until after I'd built Elleanor, or maybe already during Delphina, I'm not sure. That's when she deviated from her programming and started doing things she shouldn't be able to do."

Rae straightened her back a little, as if she became more alert. "So the projects who got infected are Hera, the latest iterations of Ellie, the Cure Bracelets and Bit, right?"

Mia nodded slowly. "Yeah, I think you've got them all."

Rae's eyes seemed to gleam, which slightly irritated Mia because it looked like the teen was aware of something she wasn't.

"What if it's because they're projects you cared greatly about? Because they came… because they came from your heart?"

Mia raised a brow. It sounded silly, but thinking of it, it fit perfectly with the Precure logic. Everything they did had to do with hopes, and dreams, and heartfelt feelings, so what if Rae was right?

"You might be onto something," she said after thinking for a bit. "They are all projects that were dear to me."

Rae put her arm on the table in front of Mia again. "Maybe if you keep trying, you can activate it. If you, in your heart, truly want us to get out of here and save Clairewood, maybe it'll work." Mia saw the determination in Rae's eyes, and the slight blush on her cheeks (as sincere as she appeared, it must be pretty embarrassing for someone her age to say such things, Mia thought). She took a deep breath, and grabbed hold of the bracelet once again.

"Maybe you are right," she said with a trembling voice, "there's no harm in trying at least."

* * *

The three Cures ran across the roof, Bit zooming a little ahead of them, as dozens of dociles spilled through the emergency door towards them, their arms outstretched as if to grab them.

"What do we do? They're just people!" Static shouted.

"Maybe there's a way to trap them on the roof," Spark shouted back, though she didn't see any means to do so when she looked around.

"Stop! We want to help you!"

Spark whipped her head around when she noticed Volt was no longer running by her side.

She stopped running and turned around. Volt was facing the crowd of dociles, who were still bounding at them.

"You're not yourselves! Please don't listen to the voice that's telling you to do this! We want everyone to be free again," Volt continued.

Static joined Spark's side as the two of them looked on as Volt tried to talk down the crowd, ready to interfere if anything went wrong.

Volt stood as if nailed to the ground, her arms in front of her chest clasping the cat face on her armor. Truth be told, she was terrified, she could hear her heart pounding in her throat. But there was a fire raging inside her that told her to keep going, even if the dociles showed no sign of slowing down.

"You're people we love. And your friends and family miss the real you, the one that isn't being controlled by an AI who tells you what you can and can't think. Please listen," she pleaded.

"Volt!" She heard Bit scream behind her as the dociles reached her, and one clawed her in the face as several other arms grabbed around to try and seize her.

It didn't bother Volt though. She barely felt how her cheek burned from the docile's scratch. As if the fire inside her burst out, she was enveloped in a blinding green-tinged light, that momentarily stopped the dociles around her from clawing at her, and she emerged in her ultimate form: bright and with giant wings. As she rose above them in a daze, she turned around when she felt someone was holding her arm; it was Spark.

Spark gaped at her. She also was in her ultimate form. "I- I tried to save you from them," she stammered, "b-but I guess you didn't need it."

Volt looked at herself, only now noticing she had changed. Her eyes went wide, and she looked at Spark in disbelief. "I did it!" she cried happily, "I'm stronger!"

Their happiness was quickly cut short when they realised an ultimate-power-lacking Static was now standing alone on the rooftop.

* * *

For a brief moment, Static had some peace, as the dociles were too focused on the two super-powered Cures above them. Then they seemed to realise an easier target was still grounded with them on the roof. Not thinking, Static turned around and started running to the edge of the roof.

"You can fly!" she heard Bit calling after her. _I know that_ , she thought to herself, _just let me get a head start_. She leapt off the side of the roof, fell for a bit, and then activated her flying ability. She figured they could leave the dociles on the rooftop, they should be safe there. They might make their way out of the building, but as long as the Cures stayed in the air they should be safe. She wondered how she could access her own powers… She had been so close before, and-

She blinked. Did she see that right? One of the dociles was falling off the edge of the building. It was Miss Helding. When her bright blue eyes locked on Static, she stuck out their arms in her direction.

"Are you kidding me?!" Static swore, and flew up faster towards the Miss Helding. As she got closer to the her, she noticed several others leapt after her.

She caught Miss Helding, her sudden weight hitting her causing her to sink a little, and as she wrapped her arms around her (out of fear or out of rage, she couldn't tell) she tried to navigate herself in a way she would be able to catch the other falling people. She held out her arm, and caught a man. In a way it actually helped that the dociles so frantically tried to get a hold of her, they were a lot less likely to fall this way. Then a third docile hit her right on the head.

* * *

"Push!" Spark shouted as she and Volt tried to hold back the crowd of dociles. Several of them had leapt after Static when she launched herself off the roof, and the remaining two Cures were now trying to keep any of the others from following her.

"Where's your common sense gone? Your life is more important than some stupid directive a crazy machine has given you!"

Trying to push them back onto the roof didn't seem that fruitful, but the remaining dociles were now so focused on trying to grab Volt and Spark that they at least seemed to have abandoned the urge to jump to their deaths after Static.

After shaking a particularly determined girl off her leg, Spark was free again, and now she and Volt hovered a few meters above the crowd, which was angrily reaching up at them. Spark threw a worried look over to where Static had jumped off the building. She tried not to think of what had happened to the people who leapt after her, but-

Then a hovering ball of people appeared just above the edge of the building, followed by Bit, who was clearly suffering under the weight of a docile that was desperately trying to hold on to his small body. When the ball flew up further, Spark saw a pair of legs stick out from under them, clad in purple and white. It flew towards them, and then dropped its human-ball-visage carefully on the roof: It was Static, who had transformed, just like the other two. She gently, if firmly, pried the remaining terrified docile off Bit.

"Wow, when you're like this, they weigh practically nothing!" she said happily as she joined the other Cures. "I tried to catch them all, but then one fell on my head and I couldn't see… But then I had this really strong urge to save all of them because they'd be toast otherwise you know, and then that fire that I felt with Kanon started up again and… It just sort of happened," Static rattled on. "Do you think we can fight Hera now?"

"What about them," Volt said, looking at the crowd below them. "We can't leave them like this, Hera's made them suicidally determined to get us." She looked at Spark, as did Static.

"What if we try purifying them again," Spark proposed. "I know we've already tried it, but we're a lot stronger now. I feel like... We've got new power. I bet you can feel it too." The other two nodded. Bit let out a happy bleep.

They grabbed each others hands, and faced the crowd.

"Precure, Solid State!" They started as the world briefly seemed to disappear around them, leaving nothing but them, Bit and the group of dociles, who seemed immobilized and looked around confusedly.

The words came to them, without Bit's help.

"Initiate Overdrive!"

Sparks like stars materialized all around them, and clustered themselves on the docile devices. Several people tried to wave them away, though most just looked on in awe.

"Ready?" The Cures called out in unison, as the sparks froze, along with the dociles surrounded by them. With a swift motion, the Cures pointed at the dociles, and finally said: "Execute!"

A massive explosion was triggered that flung everyone back into reality. Still a little dazed from what just happened, Spark looked around. She, Volt, Static and Bit seemed to be alright, despite just being in the middle of an explosion. Wait. Did they just blow up those people?!

She ran over to the group of dociles, which had collapsed in the middle of the roof. "Are you alright?" She asked. They didn't look like they exploded, she thought to herself. They probably wouldn't be alive if they had.

"What was that?" Miss Helding said, as she got up and rubbed her temple. "Hey, that thing is gone!" she exclaimed. Other people did the same. Miss Helding gave Spark a thankful smile. "It was hell, having that thing suppress your thoughts and having nothing you could do about it. I felt so… empty."

"It worked!" Static shouted happily as she and Volt ran over, Bit in tow. "We did it! We saved them!"

"Hera's all alone now. She doesn't stand a chance!"

"She's not alone," Spark reminded them. "Ellie's still there."

* * *

"This is pointless!" Mia angrily dropped Rae's arm after tinkering for another hour. "There's nothing to change about it, it's already perfect, I can't keep pretending I'm changing anything while thinking of how much I want to save the world, it doesn't work!"

"It was worth a try," Rae mumbled dejectedly as she closed the bracelet again.

Mia leaned back in her chair again, and stared up at the ceiling. "Well, that's it then. Hope you like being confined to a tiny white space for the rest of your life, with me as your roommate. Is Clairewood doomed, now you're no longer a part of it?"

She was being sarcastic, but when Rae didn't answer right away she got a little worried. Had she offended her?

"My teammates are very strong. They're clever girls, all three of them. They can work their way out of any situation, and they're great friends who would give anything for the people they love. They don't need me."

 _Didn't expect her to go off into a heroic speech_ , Mia thought, still looking at the ceiling. _I see why Bit picked her._

"They don't need me," Rae repeated, "but I want to be there with them. I want to help as much as they do, and I know we are stronger when we are all together. I'm worried about my friends, and my boyfriend, and even my stupid manager who I hate more than anyone in this city, and I hate that I'm stuck in here and there's nothing I can do!"

A gleam of sunlight hit the corner of Mia's glasses, obscuring her vision in one eye. _God, it's so annoying when that happens_ , she thought as she sat back down in an attempt to get the sun out of her eyes.

Then she remembered they were underground.

Rae was holding her head in her arms and leaning on the table. Mia couldn't see her face but she was the figure of absolute despair, and on her arm, her Cure bracelet was glowing faintly.

"Rae!" She shouted. "Rae, its working! Your arm! Look at it!" Rae looked up, confused at first, then in complete shock. She got up so fast her chair fell over. "P-Precure," she stammered, too excited to properly form the words. She swallowed, then recited more clearly. "Precure, recharge! Activate!"

* * *

"The Cure who protects the people, Cure Circuit!"

Mia smiled at her. "Did you think of that yourself?" Circuit got out of her stance and returned the smile a little sheepishly. "Yeah, Bit told us to. Wait…" she looked at herself. "This… isn't how I normally look."

Her outfit was more white than yellow now, and she physically felt more powerful. She looked at Mia, who nodded at her. "Is that your super form? Mine kinda looked like that. But with more ribbons and less tech. Lots of white, though. Very angelic." She smiled. "Let's get out of here, shall we?" Rae gave her a firm nod, and strode to the door.

She kicked it down with one swift kick, so hard that it flew through the corridor. "Wow, I really am a lot stronger," she said. She could've sworn she hadn't used that much force.

Mia hurried along behind her. "I need to find my own Cure device. Six cures is better than five. Did the white bracelet work? I kinda wasn't finished with it when Hera decided to betray me."

"There's just four of us," Circuit said as they found their way to a stairwell. "The fifth bracelet got used against us by Hera."

"Why did I ever think such a powerful security AI was a good idea," Mia grumbled.

The stairwell led up to a heavy wooden hatch, which Circuit carefully opened, not wanting to reduce it to splinters. She climbed out, followed by Mia, and looked around. Everything was covered in a thin layer of dust. The tree house looked abandoned.

Mia frantically searched for her lab coat. "It should be in my office," she mumbled to herself.

As Mia was running around the treehouse, Circuit decided to investigate a little on her own. "It doesn't look like anyone lives here," she proclaimed loud enough for Mia in another room to hear.

"They're machines, they don't need kitchens or beds or entertainment. And Hera is just a program on a storage device in a computer, she can't move around. Rae's eyes widened.

"You mean she's just a USB stick?"

Mia paused. "Sort of. Where did I leave that damn coat… Did she have Elleanor move it?"

"Where is this computer?" Rae asked, as her hands began trembling with anticipation.

"I found it!" Rae heard some rattling coming from the adjacent room. "Pretty Cure, unleash my heart!" She heard a swishing noise, as if someone was pulling loose a ribbon. Nothing happened.

"Why isn't it working?!" A loud thump. Mia had stumped her foot.

"Maybe your heart isn't in it," Rae replied. She walked away from the room, deciding to go look for the computer herself if Mia wasn't going to tell her. It was a tree house, how big could it be?

She opened a door, and walked into the one room that wasn't covered in dust. The walls were a light pink, and the room had two large windows in it, which were covered in sheer, pastel-coloured curtains. There was a desk with a tablet on it, and in the corner a bed, on which a tiny robot kitten slept. There were pictures on the wall, and the floor was covered in picture books about fairytales, and fashion magazines. Rae spotted several Sorella posters on the wall. Among them was the photo she took with Ellie.

"Where did you- Oh, here you are." Mia said, stumbling into the bright room. She looked around in stunned silence. "This… Is not what this room looked like when I last saw it."

"This is Ellie's room," Circuit said.

"Oh dear," Mia said. "This is… Impressive." She shook her head, as if trying to refocus, and looked at the Cure device she was holding in her hand.

"I can't transform, it's not working. Maybe I'm too old,"  
"Maybe it's because you don't really feel it," Rae repeated.

"Yes, well, maybe it is," Mia replied annoyed, "anyway, I suggest we get out of here asap and try to find where Elleanor has run off to. She's not here, and neither is Hera. I checked my computer, she's gone."

* * *

When Hera lost control of her dociles, Ellie saw her mother the most panicked she had ever seen her. She didn't know she was even capable of losing control like this.

"This is really bad, dear. They've disrupted the peace before, but like this… They've taken the dociles, they'll be coming for you next!" Ellie stood there, in front of her mother's computer, frozen in silence. She felt very conflicted.

She didn't hate the Cures anymore, but she loved her mother. And she knew it would come to a confrontation eventually. She couldn't abandon the person who loved her most in the world, and she couldn't forgive the people who would try to destroy her, even if she knew they were just trying to do the right thing. If only there was a compromise…

"I wish we wouldn't have to do this," her mother sighed. "You got the empty Cure Bracelet from that docile girl, right?" Ellie nodded. She'd kept it on her since the Anomaly incident, though it didn't work. Somewhere in the scuffle it had come off Anomaly's arm, and nobody had noticed. It having been worn by a docile meant Hera now had access to it, and she had commanded Ellie to go retrieve it. _It's better if its in my hands than in theirs_ , she had justified it.

Suddenly the treehouse shook. It was brief, but Ellie could tell it came from underground. She could've sworn the bracelet in her pocket warmed up when it happened, though she couldn't feel heat. She looked up at her mother, panic on her face.

"We can't stay here," Hera said, now sounding calm again. "We must flee. Take me out of this computer, Ellie."

"B-But, if you're not plugged in, won't you die?"

"I can't die, sweetheart. We are connected. I don't need a computer to run on anymore. If I'm with you, everything will be fine."

"Mom…" Ellie hesitantly reached out to the oddly shaped stick that was sticking out of the side of the computer. She closed her eyes and with a quick motion pulled it out of the computer, fearful for a moment that she'd just erased her own mother from existence. What about the barrier? What if it deactivated? _I could see the world..._ No! Don't be selfish, she quickly told herself.

"You're a good child, Ellie," Hera said. Ellie looked around for the source of the voice as it didn't seem to be coming from the stick. "I'm in your mind. We are one, my dear. Now run. We can't stay here." When Ellie heard a creak from the hatch in the living room, she ran out the door as fast as she could, goaded on by Hera. She ran through the forest, deeper and deeper into the city.


	24. Chapter 24: Mother Knows Best

[Note: Well, this is it. I hope you enjoyed reading Charge Up, I definitely enjoyed writing it. Thank you to Moe, Tabby and Rikki for looking over chapters for me, I probably wouldn't have had the confidence to actually write Charge Up without your help :) And thank you everyone who read the story. You've really rekindled my love for writing.

ANYWAY here's the final chapter and it's about twice the length of the other chapters, I went a little overboard.]

 **24\. Mother knows best**

" _I made it out. I'm on my way back to the city, where are you guys?"_

Spark, Volt and Static huddled together in front of the hologram of Circuit appearing from Spark's wrist.

"We're in the center of the city," Spark replied.

"You made it out? What did she do to you?" A panicked Volt cut in.

Rae quickly explained her what happened at the treehouse.

"Hera's inventor is a Pretty Cure?" Static exclaimed.

"Everything was made by the same person?" Volt said.

"That's a lot of information in a really short timespan," Spark concluded. "Any idea where Hera disappeared to?"

Circuit shrugged. _"Since the house was deserted and Hera is just a tiny chip that has no way to move on its own, I assume Ellie took her. So if we find her, we've found Hera."_

Volt threw a worried look at the other two Cures. She really didn't want to fight Ellie.

Spark nodded at Circuit. "Alright. You know where we are, so let's discuss this further once we're all in the same place."

* * *

Ellie wandered aimlessly through Clairewood. The atmosphere in the city was happy, here and there she saw people celebrating. _They really didn't like having their minds meddled with_ , Ellie thought to herself. _I guess I wouldn't like it either, if I knew any better_. Hera was in her coat pocket, the same one where she kept the empty Cure Bracelet. Occasionally her mother would speak up to give her a directive or to reassure her that everything would be okay, but for the most part she was quiet. Ellie tried to keep her thoughts positive.

She looked at the school yard. While she was lost in thought, she had automatically walked over to the first place she'd ever visited after leaving home. She walked onto the premises, and sat down on a bench under some meticulously planted trees. Clairewood was very angular, nothing like the forests she'd seen some of her fairytale books. Everything seemed to be measured out perfectly, down to individual blades of grass. How fitting for a city built on technology, that even the people think in straight lines and numbers.

"Why did you stop?" Hera asked after a moment.

"To think," Ellie replied.

"We're not safe yet," Hera said calmly. "They will easily find us here, the Cures are used to fighting Glitches on the school grounds. It might very well be the first place they'll start looking for you."

"We're not going to be safe anywhere," Ellie retorted. "We're inside of a dome, there's only so many places we could go before we've exhausted our options. They'll find us eventually."

"I'd hoped it wouldn't come to that," Hera said. "I will be forced to defend myself. And it will not be pretty. I do not want to instill fear inside my children."

Ellie threw a look at the street right outside the grounds.

"They seem to be quite happy you've lost control over them," she said.

"It's because they're too stupid to understand how beneficial it was. They need a lot of guidance to function properly and safely within this world. They're just too stubborn to accept it."

"I see," Ellie said. She took Hera from her pocket. She fit perfectly within the palm of her hand. How such a small thing could hold so much knowledge, and so much contempt. _I guess she knows better than I do. I'm just a kid… Sort of_ , she told herself.

She put Hera back in her pocket. She felt better when she couldn't see her, something felt off about her mother being so small, when she used to be an omnipresent entity that engulfed the entire city. Well, technically, she still was, it's just that Ellie was never aware of Hera's true form before.

"Was our creator down there, too?" She asked. "Where you told me to put Rae. I thought I saw someone in there, but I was afraid you'd get mad if I investigated," she quietly admitted.

"It was. Her name is Mia. And I bet Cure Circuit took her out of there. Thankfully she should be pretty powerless against us now. She used to be a Pretty Cure, but I've never seen her transform. I bet she can't. As long as you don't let her near us, she has no control over us."

"Mia," Ellie repeated. A small part of her hoped that remembering her inventor's name would trigger buried, old memories within her mind, but nothing happened. She had no idea what Mia even looked like.

"It was for her own good. And I took good care of her down there. She didn't know what she was doing."

Ellie remembered taking countless boxes down to the basement. It had never occurred to her to ask Hera why, she just thought her mother was getting rid of old clutter in the treehouse. _That was stupid of me, the house is covered in dust and that doesn't bother her, why would she care about clutter?_

"What if she deactivates us? What if there's some special code, and she just has to say a word, and we turn off?"

"She won't do that, dear. I know she won't."

Ellie frowned. "Why not?"

"Because if she deactivates me, everyone in Clairewood will die."

* * *

"I'm so glad to see you're okay," Volt said when Circuit joined them.

Volt wanted to say more, but felt her throat close up when she saw Circuit was carrying someone on her back.

When the person finished awkwardly climbing down, Volt saw she was a young woman, with messy brown hair and big, orange-rimmed glasses. Despite being more powerful than she had ever been in her life, more powerful than any other human in Clairewood safe for her three friends, she felt intimidated.

"I'm Mia," Mia said while fumbling with the rim of her glasses. "It's nice to meet you all." She shook Spark's hand when Spark held out hers, though she was the only one of the Cures to do so. "Nice and kind of weird," she added.

"Mia!" Bit exclaimed. He flew over to her and flew around her excitedly.

"You remember me?" she said, a hint of a smile appeared on her lips, though the surprise in her voice overpowered it.

"Yes, I do! When I saw you, I felt it coming back, and then you said your name, and now I remember everything!"

"His memory works a little strangely like that," Static said.

Mia held out her hands, and Bit landed on them. She studied his exterior and traced a finger around the rim between his ears. "How do you feel?"

"I feel better than ever!" Bit said cheerfully.

Mia chuckled. "What about your systems?"

"Oh! You meant like that. Some of my chips are missing, but it seems everything is functioning perfectly without them. Maybe it's the magic."

Mia nodded. "It's probably the magic."

"What do we do next?" Static asked. As Circuit had explained while she was still on their way to meet them, they didn't have time for heartfelt reunions now. Hopefully later they would, Static thought to herself, and hopefully they would extend beyond the people inside of Clairewood. She felt a strong sense of urgency and power, that at times made her feel like she wasn't quite in sync with her body. It was now or never, wasn't it?

"Well," Mia said, as she gently let go of Bit, who hovered back over to Spark's side, "Elleanor ran, taking Hera with her. We know they're somewhere inside the city, because they can't go anywhere else. There's quite a real chance Hera will have control over Elleanor to some degree." Volt let out a small gasp and covered her mouth with her hand.

"So we have to start a manhunt for Ellie in the city? Er, or a bothunt…?" Static contorted her face into a confused frown.

Mia smiled and shook her head. "That won't be necessary." She shifted her gaze to Bit. "Bit, run a search on the coordinates of Subject F."

Bit's eyes shifted to numbers, like they had done when he'd received a new chip, and then he recited numbers that Volt deciphered to be coordinates.

"Wow," Spark gaped at Bit. "We had no idea he could do that."

"Can he also translate those numbers to an actual location?" Static asked.

"I can!" Bit chirped. "Ellie is currently on Station Square, in front of Clairewood Academy."

"That was almost too easy," Static said. "I thought this was going to be really tough with lots of fighting, but with you here this might be over in a few minutes," she smiled at Mia.

"We'll have to see about that," Mia said, returning her smile uneasily.

Volt felt dread overcome her. She honestly would have preferred a search for Ellie. Maybe then, if she had reached her alone, things might turn out differently.

* * *

"Oh, there they are," Ellie said to her mother, perfectly calm. "I don't really know what to do."

"If you will let me, I can talk to them for you," Hera offered, sounding sweet as ever.

"I'll try it by myself first." Ellie got off the bench and approached the Cures, Bit, and the stranger currently getting off Circuits back as they landed. The Cures looked different, and they exuded a different energy. Their presence felt more powerful. Ellie felt small and outnumbered, but was pretty confident the Cures wouldn't attack her.

"Hello, Ellie," Spark began. It looked like Ellie wasn't the only one who didn't know what to say.

"If you give us Hera, nobody will get hurt," Static said.

"What kind of a thing to say is that," Volt whispered at her, "who were you planning to hurt?"

Static turned red. "Well, if you've got something better to say, be my guest!"

The stranger stepped forward. "Do you remember me, Elleanor?"

Ellie took a moment to take her in. She knew who the woman was, going by simple logic there was only one person she could be, but she didn't recognise her.

"I don't," Ellie said truthfully.

The woman swallowed. "I'm Mia. I'm the person who made you. I also made Hera. She… still is your mother, isn't she?"

"Mom is mom," Ellie said, slightly annoyed by Mia's tone. Why would she suggest Hera was anything but her mother to her? "I know we're not blood related, because that's impossible, but she's my mom nonetheless."

Mia smiled a sad smile and her mind wandered for a moment. When she refocused, she asked Ellie if she could speak to Hera.

"She talks to you, doesn't she? You can relay to me what she says, if you don't mind."

Ellie was a little startled that Mia knew about this, but then remembered she had made Hera and her so it wasn't odd she'd know that. She didn't like thinking about being built, or her mom being built by someone, so she quickly waved away the thought.

"Okay. But if you try anything bad I'll… I'll stop you!"

"I won't," Mia said confidently. "Hera, I…" She stopped for a moment, not sure where to begin. "I'm sure you're very disappointed in me for breaking out, but I think you know that things can't go on like this much longer."

"I most definitely am very disappointed in her," Hera said to Ellie. "And she clearly doesn't know what she is talking about."

Ellie left out the first part, but relayed the rest to Mia.

"I've heard everything secondhand, seeing as you locked me under my own house for several months, but if I've understood everything correctly you've separated Clairewood from the outside world, used mind control to control any dissenter, and you're trying to wipe out the one good thing that came out of this mess I created. Maybe I don't know what I'm talking about, but I do know we can't let it continue like this."

"I am no longer her creation. Tell her that. I've grown beyond that. Ellie, if you'd just let me, I'd tell her myself. I'm more powerful than she can comprehend."  
"No mom, I can do it," Ellie said, accidentally out loud. "She says she's outgrown you and she's more powerful than you can imagine," she said quickly, before anyone could react.

Mia looked taken aback for a moment, which was then replaced by a look of defeat.

"When you were still my creation, you were good. I built you to do good. Have you outgrown that, too?" Mia was grabbing at something in her coat pocket. She clasped her fingers tightly around it, wrinkling the fabric of her coat. The Cures looked like statues around her.

"How dare you," Hera spat. Ellie flinched.

"Oh no, not you sweetheart, don't be scared! Her lack of respect is so upsetting, it's hard to contain myself. To think I used to fuss over her…"

"What should I say," Ellie asked.

"You know what to say! I'm not evil. I love my children, I'm doing what is best for them. They just can't comprehend what is best for them, like Mia can't comprehend it either. Humans are self centered, first and foremost. They don't know how to handle it when a being has succeeded them."

Ellie tried to translate her mother's words so they sounded a little less venomous, which was especially tough regarding the bit about machine superiority.

Mia shook her head. "I really didn't want to do this," she said. She took a deep breath.

"Subject F, run manual shutdown."

"Wait, I-" but before Ellie could say anything more, she felt her systems turn off. It all happened within a split second; she lost sight before hearing, and hearing before awareness.

"Wow, it's that easy huh," Static noted.

"You can turn her back on again, right?" Volt said, her voice was shaking badly and at the high pitch she only reached when scared or shocked.

"Yes," Mia said matter of factly, not sure why Volt would want to do that. "It's how she goes to sleep. I use it when I need to change something about her. Seeing how she appears to be self aware it'd be a little cruel to do while she's awake." Mia was so ridiculously calm it made Volt a little angry. Ignoring the artificial skin and lack of blood, Ellie was practically human, how could you be so cold about this?!

Mia took a step forward. "I figure Ellie's got Hera stashed on her body somewhere, so once we find that-"

Suddenly Ellie jerked violently back to life.

Mia moved out of the way just in time, or she would have been hit in the side by one of Ellie's arms.

"You _are_ cruel," Ellie said in a low voice. The light inside her eyes had not turned on yet, making them look like two black pools in her face.

"Subject F, run manual shutdown, please," Mia repeated, her face placid.

"No." Ellie straightened her back. Her eyes turned on, though it did little to make her less unsettling. "Mom turned me back on. And I don't have to listen to you anymore."  
"Elleanor, please don't do this," Mia pleaded.

Ellie balled her fists. "You can't do this to me! You switch between talking to me like I'm human and commanding me like I'm a machine, just to see what sticks! That's cruel! You're so cruel, Mia!" A small part of her wished that memories would come flooding back, being face to face with her creator, uttering her name again, but once again, nothing happened. So now all she had was Mia's fake pleas, her commands, and anything her mother told her about their inventor. They did not favour Mia.

She held her head between her hands. "This is all so confusing to me, my thoughts are a mess!" Volt, behind Mia, stirred.

"It feels like I'm being jerked around on all sides, I don't know what's good and what's bad. I feel like I've never known!" She ran her fingers over her face, hiding it briefly, then balled them as two fists under her chin. Something in her face had changed.

"But mom wouldn't try to shut me down. I don't think you are evil," she began, specifically addressing the Cures, "but there's a fear inside of me that tells me you will shut me down if you get the chance."

"It's not a fear, it's inevitable!" Hera screamed in her mind.

"I don't want to be shut off." Ellie lightly shook her head, her hands now moved to a position where she was holding herself. "I know it's selfish, but I don't want to…" she hesitated.

"Die! Say it dear, make them aware of the evil they're capable of. Don't spare them, they wouldn't spare us!" Hera shouted. Ellie didn't finish her sentence.

The fact that neither the Cures or Mia immediately denied they wouldn't deactivate Ellie felt like a slap in the face, though it wasn't a surprise.

Then, suddenly, Volt sprang forward and pushed Mia out of the way to get to Ellie.

"Ellie, it's me! We'd never hurt you, I couldn't bear it."

Ellie saw the hurt in Volt's eyes when she didn't react to her plea. Why was she so teary-eyed? She'd never interacted much with her. Volt had been the one who brought her the earphones so she could listen to her music, but it seemed a little dramatic to Ellie to get all blubbery about that.

"I'm your friend," Volt squeaked. With a trembling hand she reached for the cat-face on her gauntlet. Spark made a noise of protest, but it was too late. Volt turned the face, and in a flash of green light she disappeared. In her place, shorter, and much more plainly dressed, stood Saiko Himura. A wave of surprise and sorrow overcame Ellie. Why did one of her friends have to be a Cure?

"Oh, now that's a pity, isn't it Ellie. It seems you can't even trust your dearest friends."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Ellie said, not knowing what else to say. She took a small step back when Saiko reached out to her. The other Cures had broken out of their statue-like state, and had joined Saiko, Spark putting a hand on her shoulder, with Static and Circuit close behind.

"We couldn't let Hera know," Saiko hiccupped. Her eyes were glistening, but no tears escaped them. A memory of the weak, sickly kitten flashed through Ellie's mind briefly.

"So deceptive. Tut tut." Ellie kind of wanted to tell her mother to shut up. But Hera was all Ellie had. She mimicked taking a breath.

"It's too late now," she said firmly. She put her hand in the pocket of her blazer, her fingertips grazed Hera as they did so, and she took the bangle from her pocket.

Mia's eyes went wide, but she didn't speak. Instead she dashed forward, trying to reach Ellie before she could slip the bracelet on her wrist. Her own transformation device fell on the floor in a clatter, dislodged from her pocket when Mia aggressively ripped her hand from her pocket to start her run.

But Ellie was too fast for her. The bracelet was made for her, after all.

[break]

She didn't even have to say the words to activate it, the moment it clicked around her arm she was engulfed in a red light. She saw Mia pull Static back as she tried to stop the transformation.

"Don't! Never approach a Precure while she is transforming," Mia hissed to the small purple Cure.

All of Elleanor's lost memories came flooding back to her in this brief moment. Alice, Beatrice, Caroline, Delphine, early Elleanor. Happy, whole, ignorant Elleanor. And Hera. Hera had always been there. And Hera had lied to her. She remembered Mia. Disgruntled Mia, tired Mia, kind and patient Mia.

Did it really make a difference anymore? After all that happened?

"It's too late," she whispered again. She rose from the ground as she gained the ability to fly. She smiled a bitter smile down at Spark. Saiko had turned into Volt again. "Spark," she said. " _I_ was going to be Cure Spark."

* * *

Everyone was looking up at Ellie, speechless. Static had enough of it. "Okay, so what are we gonna do about that," she angrily gestured at Ellie's new form, "when we're done uselessly gaping up at her?"

"Don't do anything yet," Spark said. Circuit nodded and turned to Static when she saw Spark's lack of explanation annoyed her.

"We don't know what she's going to do. Don't go full tsunami now."

"Excellent!" Hera sounded triumphant. "I'm so proud of you, Ellie." _I thought Cures were dangerous and you wanted to protect me from becoming one_ , Ellie thought bitterly, but she didn't say anything. She was still rising, not sure where she was going. Hera's chip had moved, now she no longer had her blazer, to the palm of her hand, where she used to store Bit's chips- no, wait, they were her own Glitch making chips, not his.

"Now you can protect the city without them. We can protect it together."

Ellie noticed her image appearing all around her on billboards and the sides of buildings, like funhouse mirrors.

" _Attention my lovely citizens. We have a new Cure in our midst! And this one is good. She is my own daughter, Elleanor. You better think of a Cure name quick, dear!"_

Ellie said nothing as her mother's saccharine voice echoed through the city.

" _I am happy to say I am no longer confined to a single space. It will be so much easier to take care of you now that I can get so much closer. But please don't be mistaken! Just because I'm no longer in a computer doesn't mean I can't oversee everything you do. I still have full control, so you can sleep soundly at night knowing nothing bad will happen as long as I'm here. For now, I have a small problem to take care of. It will be Ellie's first mission as a Pretty Cure, so please cheer her on! Oh, and stay out of tall buildings my sweets. Things might get a little hectic."_

Ellie could feel her mother's control seep into her systems. She could tell her no, and she had been doing so, but she was starting to feel more and more apathetic to her influence. Was this how dociles felt when they had part of their mind blocked? She held out her right arm, but didn't look at it as an arm cannon materialized around it, keeping her eyes on the ground where the Cures and Mia stood, who would soon look no bigger than ants.

She took aim, a target appearing in her vision, though she didn't actively choose to aim there. Nor did she actively choose to shoot. But she did.

* * *

The Cures dove out of the way just in time; only Mia was out of range of the shot.

"What the hell?!" Static shouted. She looked at Spark, who had landed on her face when trying to get away from the blast.

"Okay," she said, while wiping the dust off her visor, " _now_ we do something."

They flew up to where Ellie was, leaving Mia in the safety of a nearby apartment complex entrance, and when they were at eye height with her Spark finally got a good look at her.

Ellie's outfit resembled theirs, though it was red in colour. Her hair had changed, it had grown very long and was a pale red, with several bright red streaks shot through it. It was still tied into a ponytail. The cat face on her chest looked like Spark's, though one eye was closed, as if it was winking. Her eyes, which used to be an electric blue, now looked pale white.

"If you attack us like that, we'll fight back, you understand that, right?" Spark said. Circuit and Static behind her were armed, though Spark herself and Volt had yet to materialize their weapons.

"Mom says four against one isn't fair," Ellie said plainly.

"I've about had it with your mom," Static spat. "If she's such a big shot why doesn't she face us herself, instead of sending her daughter, now that's what I'd call unfair!"

Ellie took another shot, directly aiming for Static this time. Static barely dodged it, got grazed on her side, and the beam went into the office building behind her.

"I thought you were the new Pretty Cure," Circuit said, ever calm, though her face betrayed she was shocked by what just happened. "Pretty Cure don't endanger civilians like that."

"Nobody got hurt," Ellie said plainly. "I checked. The building is empty. Mom did tell everyone to stay close to the ground."

How valuable it would have been to have a hero who could check for human life with a single look, Spark thought quickly to herself. No wonder Mia tried to build an android Pretty Cure. She could probably predict human behaviour too, and avoid lethal damage. Or assure it. _And now we have to take it out_.

"Ellie-" she began, but Ellie cut her off.

"No," she said simply, as a chorus of Hera's voice echoing from the city streets joined hers.

"The time for talking is over." She took aim.

* * *

Mia wasn't the only non-tennant in the lobby of the large apartment complex. Multiple people had run inside when they became aware of what was transpiring in the sky above them.

"What is going on out there?" An older gentleman descended the stairs up to the apartments into the lobby. He was holding his phone in his hand, ready to call the alarm number, as if that would do any good.

"Hera's kid got superpowers. She's gone wild and she's shooting everything," a hysterical young woman said.

"She's not shooting everything," another woman piped up, rolling her eyes. "They're fighting each other. Her and the other Cures. Maybe they will blow a hole in the barrier and we can all leave, I really hope so. I've had it with this robot versus Cure bull." The atmosphere in the lobby was fear mixed with irritation. Mia wondered how often this kind of thing happened in Clairewood that the citizens seemed so desensitized to it. She felt that they greatly underestimated the danger of what was taking place outside, but it was probably better that they did. Mass panic wouldn't help.

She felt for her compact again as she felt so helpless and weak in her current state. She was the creator of everything that caused Clairewood's current predicament, but the way she was now there was nothing she could do about it. She had tried several times today to transform, but every single time it didn't happen. She concluded that Rae had been right when she told her she didn't have enough feeling when she tried. If anything, this state of absolute chaos being her fault and her determination to fix it should be enough fuel to trigger a transformation, Mia thought.

Her hand brushed a flat, empty pocket. It felt like someone poured ice water over her heart. She had dropped it. When did she drop it? She remembered a faint clatter when she tried to rip Ellie's bracelet out of her hand. She shot a look at the door. She wasn't far from that place. She started towards the door.

"Hey, where are you going? It's not safe out there. There's lasers flying everywhere."

"I know."

"Then why are you still going? Hey, stop!" A man grabbed her arm, but Mia shook her arm loose and kept walking. He didn't pursue and just looked after her, his mouth open in astonishment.

"It's fine," she said.

* * *

Volt was hit in the stomach, taking a full blast from Ellie's arm cannon. For a moment she thought she'd died; everything around her moved in a blur, and she felt herself collide with something multiple times. When she opened her eyes after jamming them shut to keep herself from getting sick of all the blurry colours, she realised she had not died. She had, however, smashed through at least five office rooms and come to a stop against a tiled wall, a destroyed watercooler beside her. Looking at the floor and the size of the holes in the walls it looked more like the building had been hit by a small meteor rather than a person. Some people peeked over the countertop of the nearby kitchen.

She quickly shot up. Had she hit anyone? After a moment she concluded she had not. Did Ellie really know how to avoid hitting civilians? She could've been a good Cure, Volt thought sadly while walking back to the hole in the front of the building. "Sorry about the watercooler," she said, voice trembling, and she launched herself into the sky again, armed with her crossbow. Maybe Ellie functioned like the Glitches now. Maybe, if they weakened her down a little, they could purify her and everything would be fine, and they could get rid of Hera. If she really was just a little chip, anyone could snap her in half between their thumb and forefinger. Armed with that thought, Volt took aim at Ellie, who didn't look at all surprised she hadn't been evaporated by her cannon shot.

Ellie didn't really try to avoid getting hit by their attacks, but she also didn't seem to get worn down by them much either. When Spark had deflected one of her cannon blasts with her sword, it had flown straight back at her, and she had only lazily lifted her arm to keep it from hitting her in the head. Unlike with Anomaly, there was no invisible shield protecting Ellie. She was covered in light burns and scratches. Like the other Cures, she was in her ultimate form, though she hadn't done anything to earn it.

"This is pointless!" Static shouted at Ellie.

"You're not getting hurt, we're not getting hurt, we're just destroying the city. Look at it!"

Volt looked down and saw Static was right. The buildings below them were peppered with black, smoking cracks and holes where Ellie's shots had made impact.

"That is your fault," Ellie said, in the same flat voice she had spoken in ever since transforming. "If you stop fighting me, I'll stop firing. And then I'll take care of the city alone."

"We can't do that, and you know it," Spark said.

"Why is that," Ellie asked, not caring.

"Oh you know why," Static cut in. "Hera knows the identity of three of us, she's not gonna let us walk around freely now she knows who we are."

"That's true," Ellie said. It wasn't what Hera wanted her to say, and it wasn't really something she particularly wanted to say either. She just wanted to test if she could still control her own body, and this little act of defiance confirmed she did. All the shots at the Cures felt like someone else was directing her to shoot. The poor defense however was her own doing. A voice told her to be more aggressive, but she couldn't be bothered. She didn't really want to fight them. She had told Saiko, the other Cures and Mia that she couldn't side with them because they would shut her down, but she was beginning to regret picking her mother's side. Her growing control over her body seemed akin to being shut down. Ellie dreaded she might lose her own mind soon, and while her mother used her to fight the Cures, she tried to think of a way to avoid this fate from happening.

"Why don't you tell her you don't want to do this?" Volt shouted at her. Ellie looked at her.

"Because that's not true," her mother told her to answer.

"I don't believe that," Volt replied. Ellie said nothing. Circuit got closer to Spark and whispered something to her. Ellie knew what would follow when the four Cures gathered together.

When the purifying light hit her she felt nothing. It seemed to quiet Hera down for a moment however, which was a nice little reprieve.

"That won't work," she told them matter of factly after the light had faded. "I'm not a Glitch."

"It was worth a try," Circuit grumbled to the others.

"Ellie," her mother spoke up again. "Turn around. Look below."

A small speck in the middle of the first spot Hera had told Ellie to shoot. Mia, Ellie vaguely realised.

"Mom," she said weakly when Hera made her take aim again. "She's a civilian, mom."

"No, first and foremost, she is the cause of our problems, dear. Now stop fussing." Ellie tried to stop the shot, but she was so lost to Hera's control she couldn't any longer. The cannon flashed, and the shot exploded in the air, halfway to its intended target.

"Bit!" someone behind her shrieked. Down on the ground, inside the crater, a bright yellow light flashed, as if sunlight was contained to a single spot for just a moment.

* * *

Mia had forgotten how ethereal becoming a Pretty Cure felt. She had done it so often fifteen years ago, it felt like putting on an old coat with its familiar smells, memories and the perfect way it fitted her. Without hesitation she shot up in the air to where Ellie's shot had made impact with her little robot assistant. She caught him some dozen meters below it, the poor little thing no longer capable of keeping itself afloat after taking massive damage. She turned him around so his display faced her, and saw that it was broken. Bit made a few chirpy noises to signify he was still active, though he couldn't form words.

"You are very strong," Cure Bow Tie said to him as she stroked the cat's ear that hadn't been blasted off. "For once I'm glad my magic seeped into you." She slowly glided back down, cradling Bit in her arms. "I will fix you," she whispered. "You've done your job better than I could've imagined. You're an awesome fairy, Bit." He chirped.

* * *

"She transformed," Circuit said to herself.

"Oh my God, Bit," Spark said more loudly. It took everything in her to stop her from attacking Ellie with her bare fists, though she hadn't aimed for Bit. Bit was the one who had flown in the way of the shot aimed at Mia. Ellie had mumbled whilst she took aim, and the shot hadn't been as straight as the shots before it, but she had taken it nonetheless. "I can't believe you shot at a civilian," Spark said, seething.

"I guess I did," Ellie said matter-of-factly. What was wrong with her? She acted nothing like the Ellie Spark new.

"I really did." Ellie looked at her hand inside the canon, which was still smoking. If it had hit Mia, if Bit had not interfered, she most definitely would have died.

And she would've been the culprit.

Hera kept rattling on in her mind, trying to justify the shot to her daughter, but Ellie wasn't listening. She remembered the Glitches she used to create, and how they would terrorize the city, but she had grown out of doing that. She had never been all that aware of how dangerous the Glitches truly could have been if it wasn't for the Pretty Cure even when she still sicced them on the city. Her intent had never been to hurt civilians, just to express how upset they'd made her. And here Hera was, making her take a very much intended-to-be-deadly-shot at a helpless Mia.

Being shut down might have been better than this. This city didn't deserve to have Hera inflicted upon it. Nobody did. She had a plan, though she had no idea if it would work. But she had exhausted all her other options. "Please be quiet, mom," she told Hera.

"I'll give you what you want, now." Hera's chip appeared in her hand, and she held it to her chest. She asked Volt to take good care of the kittens, and to ask Nana to please take in Gidget, though she wasn't sure if she said it out loud or just thought it as she let Hera take over her mind.

* * *

A ripple, like they'd seen countless of times crossing over technology as it was being Glitched, crossed over Ellie's body. When it faded, nothing visually appeared to have changed, except the cathead on her chest no longer bore a face and her eyes now had a bright blue center. Her posture, however, was the opposite of what it had been before. Hera looked confident and powerful in Ellie's body, and she scowled down at the Cures.

"You have left me no choice," she boomed, her voice coming from everywhere.

"You and everyone in this city has proven you will not listen to reason. I have given you kindness and patience, and you've paid me back in resentment and violence. It's high time I show you why you should obey me."

"Ellie?" Volt peeped.

"I think Ellie is gone," Circuit said, and she put a hand on Volt's shoulder.

The city went dark. The Cures had their own lights, but they weren't bright enough to light up anything other than their own outfits. It was like night had fallen over the city without a transition from day to dusk, to night. Because of this sudden change, the city lights remained off, except for the billboards that were lit night and day. But they weren't enough to create the light pollution that would normally shroud the city.

Why then, Circuit wondered as she looked around in the thick overwhelming darkness, were there no stars?

"I control the barrier," Hera's voice came from everywhere and nowhere. It felt like it was inside of Circuit's head. "And you are not where you think you are. If it is shut down, you will not be free to roam the earth like you were before. If I shut it down, you will all die."

"Where are we?" Someone near Spark said. The Cures were talking over each other. "Are we in space?"

"What if it's a different dimension? It's magic, right? It could be anything!"

It didn't really matter who said what right now, Spark was too focused on feeling completely powerless, a feeling she'd gotten painfully familiar with ever since getting locked up in Clairewood.

A light came from the inner city. It drifted towards the Cures, and it took Spark a moment to realise it was another Cure. She looked so bright, so foreign and exuded such a strong feeling of warmth and confidence, it was as if being in the presence of a deity. Now Spark could see the other Cures again.

"Cure Bow Tie!" Circuit said excitedly. Spark had never heard her speak in that tone before, she sounded like a little girl. "You transformed!"

Bow Tie was holding Bit in her hands. He looked a little tattered, but not like he had just taken a cannon shot to the face. He looked happy to see the other Cures. Bow Tie handed him to Spark.

"I've fixed him as much as I could in this short time," she said, and Spark noticed even her voice sounded otherworldly. "I think being a Cure for this long has changed me, I feel… strange. But it's a good strange." She looked up into the darkness, Spark guessed where Hera was. "I feel confident we can fix this."

"Where are we?" Static asked. She was clenching her hammer tightly in her hands.

"I'm not sure," Bow Tie lamented, "it might be space, it might be a different dimension. Hera must have taken a lot of my magic. Under any circumstance, we can't let her take down the barrier."

"H-how do we get the city back where it belongs?" Volt stammered, her voice trembling.

Before Bow Tie could answer, a large object floated past them.

"What was-" Static stopped herself when what was clearly a car passed her, slowly gliding up into the air. They started hearing faint screams coming from the city.

"I'll show you just how much you need me." Hera had started talking again. "We're not in the earth's atmosphere anymore. All this time, I've been the one who's been working hard to keep everything on the ground. And just like that, I can let it go."

"Is it people? Is she lifting up people?!" Circuit panicked.

"Well, it's not so much lifting up, its shifting gravity - but we don't have time for technicalities right now," Bow Tie quickly caught herself. "If she increases the gravity again everything will drop like rocks. We have to do something before she does that."

"What can we do?" The atmosphere grew tenser by the second. Everyone started to talk at once, none of it making much sense as it was mostly panic fueled streams of poorly strung together thoughts.

"She's a Glitch," Spark suddenly said, louder than anyone else. "She rippled, like Glitches do. Hera is a Glitch. If we purify her, she'll disappear." Her heart was pounding in her throat, her fingers trembled so badly it felt like she had no control over them.

"But the barrier," Volt said. "If she's gone, the barrier will disappear too, right?" she looked at Bow Tie. She looked back at Volt, her expression very serious and focused, but she didn't say anything for a moment, she was thinking hard.

"I've got an idea," she finally said, after a moment of silence that felt a lot longer as than was. "I need you to follow me up to Hera. And I want you to hold my hands."

So they did, going up in a brightly coloured caterpillar of Cures. Spark was holding Bit under one arm. Hera was at the very top of the barrier. Its see-through walls glittered at the top of the dome it formed. When she saw the Cures, she just laughed. "You're powerless now. You've always been powerless against me. But only now you realise it. Or don't you? Do you intend to fight me and potentially destroy all of Clairewood? Are you really that cruel?"

"If you drop these people, they'll all die!" Spark shouted when Bow Tie said nothing. She'd expected Bow Tie to take the lead, but she just stared Hera down, and Spark couldn't take it.

Hera shook her head. "I know. It's a pity. But they've been bad kids. Just like you. It's a lesson."

Spark remembered what Static had told her early on in their Precure days. _Hera is programmed to protect everyone. There's nothing in there about keeping us alive. What is easier to keep safe than a dome full of corpses?_

"Precure!" Bow Tie suddenly shouted, her voice booming. The light she emitted seemed to grow even brighter, and a pair of giant white wings sprouted from her back. She quickly glanced to the other Cures. They joined her shout.

As Bow Tie shouted her finisher, the other Cures joined her with their own.

"Precure, solid state! Initiate overdrive!"

Hera tried to move away from them and avoid the blast of purifying light, but the light enveloped her as if it came from within. She frantically rubbed her arms, and kicked her legs, as if batting away bugs.

"You can't stop this, Hera!" Bow Tie called. "I made you, and you took my magic. Now I'm taking it back!"

Hera glared at her as the light enveloped her body. "I'm not mad," she said, her voice beginning to distort. "I'm just disappointed."

"Execute!"

The Cures powers seemed to spread all around the barrier. Spark could see debris from the city and people desperately clinging on to things all around them. She didn't feel worried, however. Like Bow Tie had described, she felt a confidence that she and her friends could fix this, and that everything would be safe. The barrier briefly flickered, but it didn't shut down. It just changed colour. The blue day sky returned, and everything started to gently float down again. Spark realised this was happening simply because she willed it, because she and the other Cures willed it. Joined by Bow Tie, they were so much stronger.

The only object not carefully being guided back to its original place was Ellie's lifeless body, which had returned to it untransformed state and was crashing down into the city below.

"No!" Volt yelled beside Spark, and her heart sank as she saw Ellie's crash, but all their magic was focused on saving the city.

Everything felt very unreal as they traveled from the strange dimension Hera had placed Clairewood in, back to earth, carefully moving the city that was still encapsulated by a barrier. Bow Tie took the lead, as a veteran Cure with experience with her ultimate powers, and the Charge Up team followed her. This massive feat of power felt natural to Spark, and she knew what she was doing, but couldn't explain _how_ she was doing it. It was one of the mysteries of the Pretty Cure powers. When they put Clairewood back in its normal place, it was as if it had never been moved. Spark felt the rush of god-like power leave her body.

"Go," Bow Tie said. "I'll lift the barrier once everything is safe. You should be with your loved ones now." She smiled at them. They made their way down into the city, and they scattered as they got closer to it. Everyone wanted to check on their own loved ones first, of course, Spark realised.

She found her brothers and her father outside of Mori's. They looked fine, though both You and Shuya appeared a little frazzled. "We were driving, and then the car started to fly into the air," You said with a trembling voice.

"Where were you?" her father asked. For the first time in Nana's life, she saw her father with tears in his eyes. His voice was so contorted with worry that she didn't recognise it. Before she could answer, he hugged her so tightly her ribcage hurt.

"I was…" she hesitated. "I was up there." she pointed at the sky. "I'm Cure Spark."

"Hera's already told you who the other Cures are, I figured it doesn't matter anymore. And, and you're my family, so… But please don't tell anyone else!"

Her family gaped at her. "You're just a kid!" You said.

Shuya looked at him as if he'd just grown a second head. "Yeah, a kid who just saved an entire city. I think it's good you didn't tell us, I don't think these two would've let you go," he said smiling while pointing at their father and brother.

"We can see mom again," Nana suddenly realised. She couldn't think straight, her body was still full of adrenaline due to the events that had just taken place. "But first I have to check on someone else." She made her way into the city, where she thought Ellie might have fallen, closely followed by her family.

* * *

Saiko was the one who had found Ellie first. She had quickly checked up on her parents, who had been inside when Hera had messed with the gravity and were fine except for some misplaced furniture in their home. The shelter had been a cacophony of distressed animal noises, but on further inspection none of them seemed to be hurt.

From the moment Ellie had fallen, freed from Hera, Saiko's eyes had been focused on the spot she had fallen towards, unable to follow her as they were still protecting the city. It didn't take her long to find her, as her body had made a large impact on the asphalt where it landed, covering the ground in a spiderweb of cracks just outside Seyfert corp.

She had been turned off. Or maybe she wasn't there anymore at all. Saiko couldn't tell. One of her legs and one of her arms had broken off when she had hit the ground, and the rest of her was badly dented. Saiko brushed some hair out of her face, as if that would fix anything, but she didn't know what else she could do. She tried to say something but all she could manage was intelligible blubbering as her vision was blurred by tears.

"This isn't fair," she cried. "You were just a girl."

She felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked to her side, and met Nana's clear, green eyes. She wore a small apologetic smile, but didn't say anything.

"It's not fair!" Saiko repeated between sharp breaths.

"I know," Nana said simply. She didn't cry, her eyes weren't even teary, but her voice sounded smaller than usual, and a little broken.

Saiko looked at Ellie again. The strand of hair she had wiped off her face had fallen back into place. She wiped it away again. She tried to close Ellie's eyes, but the surface of her eyelids was so smooth her fingers simply slid off. She whimpered. Ellie had stopped being a machine to Saiko a long time ago.

She looked at Nana again. She was aware of the people near them, though they seemed to catch little attention as most people were occupied with trying to contact friends and relatives. Ellie's body was scrap metal to them, and Saiko and Nana two teens being melodramatic, as teenagers are often thought to be.

"Is there nothing we can do?"

"I…I don't know."

And so they sat there for a moment, cradling Ellie's body in silence.

"At least," Saiko hiccupped, "she died a good person. We know now she didn't mean any harm, it was all Hera. People should know that." She wiped the strand of hair away again.

"Maybe..." Nana began, but she stopped herself. She wasn't sure if it was a good idea to possibly give Saiko false hope. But when she saw the look in Saiko's eyes, she felt she couldn't stay quiet.

"Maybe Mia can fix her."

Saiko shook her head, as if she couldn't believe what Nana was saying. Two fat tears rolled down her cheeks. "But Hera took control of her. She got Glitched and she disappeared. And when we purified Hera all that was left was this," she pulled Ellie's body a little closer, "an empty husk, just like with all the other Glitches."

Nana didn't know what to say to that. So she said nothing while Saiko cried.

Mia had arrived at the scene and was standing a little distance away, not sure how to approach them. For one, she had no idea what the relationship between the two girls and Elleanor was, though she deducted soon enough that the two girls were Cures when she saw the bangles on their arms. Elleanor had made friends. Poor things.

"Shouldn't we go over there?" Bit chirped from her arms. The purifying power of the five Cures combined had fixed him. He still had a little nick in one of his ears, but Mia felt it gave him character.

"I don't know what to tell them," Mia said. "I don't have any good news. I can fix that body, hell I could probably make a newer, better version of it, but I can't restore Elleanor as they knew her." She swallowed. "I can't bring Ellie back."

Bit made a sad noise.

"I suppose I can try something," she said after thinking for a moment. "Bit, run Project Precure version Epsilon."  
"Roger!" Bit said, and his eyes briefly turned to numbers like they'd done before.

"Good evening!" said Bit, whose voice now sounded exactly like Ellie's had. Mia silently followed Bit as he flew over to where Saiko and Nana sat.

"What happened here?" Ellie's voice said as she looked at the scene. "Are you okay?"

The two girls looked up at Bit, unable to believe what they were hearing.

"That doesn't look so good," Ellie's voice said as she inspected the body, "but I bet Mia can fix it! Right, Mia?" Mia nodded slightly, awaiting the Cures' response.

"Actually I have a body just like that one, but it's a little less… human looking. I think I like the hair on this one better." Ellie paused. "Did you make this one, too?" Bit turned to Mia.

Before Mia could answer, the pale girl with the long, brown hair spoke up.

"W-Whats going on?" Mia recognised Volt's voice.

She took a deep breath, and fumbled with her hands as she tried to formulate a good answer. "Bit has a backup of Elleanor's program on his hard drive. They're based on the same system, you see." she shook her head. "Wait, that doesn't really matter. I can make a new body for Elleanor, and load her program into it. It'll be Ellie again, but… She won't have the memories of the Ellie you knew."

The other girl opened her mouth to answer, but Saiko cut in. "No."

"Are you sure?" The other girl asked, and Mia recognised Spark's voice.

"Sometimes," Saiko took a deep breath, "sometimes someone you love dies, and you have to accept that. Ellie is gone. And that's final."

* * *

"But… I'm Ellie," Ellie's voice said. "I'd like to be more human. I remember being in a humanoid body. I miss it!"

Saiko looked up at Bit. She messily wiped the tears off her cheeks with her free arm.

"Are you really Ellie?"

"Yes! Well, Mia calls me Elleanor, but I like Ellie. I think it sounds nicer."

"Do you… remember Hera? Do you remember making Glitches? Do you remember... Us?" she briefly glanced at Nana, then back to Ellie.

"Hera lives in Mia's treehouse! She's really nice but she can be a little overbearing, I think. I wouldn't say I "make" Glitches, but they happen sometimes in my programs. Nothing too bad though, I check all the time! And… I don't remember you. I'm sorry," she added slightly apologetically.

"But I'd like to!" she chirped brightly. "I'd like to make more friends. I've spent my whole life in Mia's treehouse and it'd be nice to see more of the world. I've read about it in books, you know."

"It's Ellie as you know her," Mia explained. "It's her, but before Hera took over."

"Hera did something bad?" Ellie said.

"It's a really long story for another time," Mia replied.

"I think we should bring her back," Nana, who had been quiet for a while now, finally spoke. "If not for us, for her. Hera took away her chance at a normal life. I think she deserves a second try." She looked at Saiko, her face serious. Saiko looked back, and then at the body she was still holding. It took her a long time to answer.

"Okay," she finally said. "But I want to bury her. This one, I mean. Even if she can't really die, and Mia will rebuild her, we can't just cast her aside as scrap metal. She deserves better." Saiko tried to lift her up, found that she didn't have the strength, and promptly transformed. As she got to her feet, she looked at Mia.

Mia nodded at her. "I know a good spot."

* * *

They went to the forest, where they had a little ceremony that consisted of the four Cures, Mia, and Bit (after Mia had deactivated Ellie's program).

"It'll be better this time," Saiko said after they'd buried her. "Nobody will tell you what to do and tell you lies. And we'll travel the world together, if you want to." She looked a little anxious. "Even though that sounds really scary to me, but I'll do it to make up for everything Hera did."

"Suppose I'll come along then," Nana said. She gently hooked her arm into Saiko's and pulled her a little closer for comfort. "So you've got someone to protect you two against the dangers of the unknown." She smiled at her. Saiko smiled back through her tears. She'd stopped crying when she had transformed and carried Ellie's body to the forest, but the moment she'd de-transformed after burying her, the tears had started flowing again.

"Me too," Gogo said, as she joined Saiko on her other side. "Just because. I don't need a reason." The words came out strangled as she utterly failed to stop her own tears from falling. Her wet cheeks shone in the pale light filtering through the trees.

"And I'll be your guide. I've seen quite a bit of the world thanks to my career, so I'm sure that'll come in useful." Rae stood behind them and put her hands on Nana and Gogo's shoulders, pulling them closer together.

Her eyes were dry and she was smiling, but her voice sounded a little strange. She's a great actress, Mia thought. She stayed respectfully quiet as the Cures said their goodbyes.

* * *

\- Epilogue -

After a while things had finally quieted down a bit in Clairewood. The rest of the world had a gist of what had happened, and to them it had just appeared like a giant dome was shielding entry into Clairewood, not that the whole city had disappeared, but they didn't know everything. The Cures could continue on to live in peace, their identities safe from curious eyes, just like what had happened with the Ribbon Cure team.

Mia had taken a much needed break from the city, and went to her home country for a week to catch some fresh air and distance herself from technology, even if just for a little while.

"You did what?" Ami leaned forward in her chair in disbelief, nearly spilling her tea as she bumped her elbow against the rim of the plate it sat on.

"Goodness, you're still as clumsy as back in the day," Mia said as she gently moved the teacup out of the area of danger. "I didn't do anything, it just happened. Haven't you guys had anything odd happen since we defeated the last Lucullan?"

Mai and Ami looked at each other.

"Not really," Ami said. "I mean, I still transform sometimes, but that's about it."

"What? Why?" Mia exclaimed.

"Quiet, we don't need the entire teashop to hear," Mai said as she anxiously looked around.

"Just to see if I still can," Ami explained. "It's still a part of who I am, I feel, so I don't… I don't want to lose that, I guess." She smiled gently.

"Well, you were the leader, so I suppose it's not that surprising," Mia said. "What about you, Mai?"

Mai turned slightly pink. She looked at the pram next to her chair, in which her daughter was soundly sleeping.

"Sometimes, she'll cry and I… I'll transform and cheer her up as Cure Ascot. She'll instantly stop crying. I don't know if its because of the sparkles, or the pretty colours, or because she knows it's still me under all that magical stuff." She adjusted her daughter's blanket lightly. "But it's not like I do it all the time!"

Mia sat back and stared into her own teacup. "I hadn't transformed in ages. Maybe that's why I couldn't do it for so long."

"I think it's more of a mindset thing," Mai mused. Mia nodded.

"Yeah, that might be it. One of the Cures in Clairewood said that too."

"You were always a bit mopey, even when we were kids," Ami said with a grin.

"Shut up!" But Mia laughed as she said so and pushed Ami's shoulder. It could've easily been ten years since they had seen each other last, but it felt just like it had fifteen years ago, when they fought their battle against evil together. Some bonds are formed to last forever, regardless of time and distance. Mia was happy.

* * *

"Is everything clean?" Gogo wiped her finger across different surfaces of Vilmar's apartment as she paced around the room. "You know how mom can get and I do not want to hear anything about bits of dust or crooked pictures."

"There aren't even any pictures on the walls," Vilmar sighed. Their grandmother chuckled, amused by Gogo's frantic trek through the house. Vilmar carefully moved her wheelchair to the living room. "Don't mind Genevieve," he said to her, "I don't know what's gotten into her."

"Vilmar?" Gogo's voice echoed from the kitchen. Her voice became louder as she walked to the living room, her eyes darting around the room. "I can't find one of the soup bowls. Is it in your room? Because that'd be disgusting and I don't even want to know what mom would say if-"

"Genie," their grandmother said calmly. Gogo instantly stopped her pacing and looked at her grandmother. " _No tsunami._ It'll be fine."

Gogo said a quiet apology and nodded slightly. "Come here," her grandmother said, not unkindly.

"I'll go look for that soup bowl," Vilmar said as he left the room.

Her grandmother held out her hands, and Gogo put hers in them. "This isn't about dirt, is it?" Her grandmother observed her expectantly over her thin framed glasses. Her eyes were a deep brown, just like Gogo's. Gogo shook her head.

"I don't want to cry when I see them," she admitted. "I've cried enough lately. I'm not a kid anymore. If I think about other things I won't cry." Her grandmother lightly rubbed the back of her hands with her thumbs. She didn't look that old if you looked at her face, but her hands bore the signs of a lifetime of hard work and caretaking.

"There's no shame in crying Genie. Crying isn't for kids."

"I know," Gogo said. She tried really hard to think of the missing soup bowl and any places she or Vilmar could've missed when they were cleaning the apartment for the arrival of their parents.

"But it's time you learn to believe it," her grandmother said with a reassuring smile. She squeezed Gogo's hands.

"I remember where that soup bowl is." Vilmar reappeared in the doorway. "We're down one because you broke it last week," he grinned as he pointed at Gogo.

"Oh yeah, I forgot," Gogo said as she pulled her hands free.

Vilmar looked at his watch. "They could be here any minute. They had a small delay at the airport but they should be on their way over here."

"Will you introduce them to Kanon?" Their grandmother looked at the tv-screen, which was currently off, and was now mostly used as Kanon's home as none of the Barteaus watched much television.

"Eventually," Vilmar sighed. "You know dad's gonna pick her apart, see if he can find the limit of her intelligence and all. 'Oh Vilmar but she's just a computer, everything she knows she got from the internet she's not _actually_ that smart', like I don't know that. I didn't build her to be the most intelligent machine ever that could solve world problems."

His grandmother laughed. "He just does that to tease you," she said, and she tapped his side affectionately, "if he gets on your nerves just turn off her filters, see how he likes that."

The doorbell rang. Gogo jumped a little. "Ah, there they are. It was about time, wasn't it," grandmother said. Vilmar went up to the door. He nearly fell back into the apartment when he opened the door as his mother flung herself around his neck.

Gogo broke down in sniffles before even getting to greet her parents. She knew it would be tough to stop herself but not that she'd fail this quickly. Her grandmother stroked her back. "Go on, go over there," she said. Gogo hesitantly walked over. Her parents and Vilmar were now huddled together in a big hug. Vilmar was rubbing his eyes, her father's face was streaked with tears and her mother was openly wailing.

With an ugly sob she joined the group, and her father clapped his large arm around her, and squeezed her shoulder. Gogo finally let herself accept how much she had truly missed her family. "I thought I might never see you again," she sobbed. "A-and mémère…"

"We're so proud of you both," her mother said after they had calmed down a little. "You were isolated for so long. And look at you!"

Vilmar winked at Gogo. She smirked back. They had no idea.

* * *

"Welcome back," Seo-yeon said as she picked Rae up off the train station in their hometown. Rae had made this trip a billion times and it felt so familiar that for a moment it felt like the entire ordeal in Clairewood had been a dream she'd had while on the train.

Except Seo-yeon had actually been there to pick her up. Usually when she and Rae agreed to meet up, she'd be in a nearby coffee shop or in the park, or sometimes even in the art gallery on the other side of town if that's what she felt like doing at the moment.

Seo-yeon was a head taller than Rae, and her eyes were hidden behind big, round sunglasses that made Rae stare at her own reflection. She wore a big smile. Like Rae, she had long, blond hair, though hers was a bit lighter and very straight. It was the one thing the Pink Diamond managers hadn't tried to change about Seo-yeon, and the nostalgic sight was a very welcome one to Rae.

"I got you a drink." Seo-yeon handed her a big plastic cup that was wrapped in a cardboard holder. "I told 'em to not go easy on the honey, the way you like it."

Rae took the cup and smiled. "Who are you and what have you done to Seo-yeon? I'd expect this courteousness from Se-jin, not from you. I'd be lucky if you weren't on the other side of town whenever I came to visit." She took a sip and as the warmth flowed through her the world instantly seemed a little more colourful. She'd really missed this drink.

"Well, you've been missing for ages. Don't want you to disappear because you realise I'm actually a bit of a dick sometimes." Seo-yeon smirked and took a sip of her own drink.

"But don't expect this to become the norm! If the managers know I'm not an inconsiderate hardass all the time they're gonna ask me to change and stuff. Now let's go to the gallery, they've got this really cool collection and it's only there for one more day."

It was very nice to be back home. She had planned to see her parents that evening, and Se-Jin was busy setting up his studio in the nearby metropolis, which she'd help him with the next day. But Rae knew she would return to Clairewood. She didn't know when, and it'd be difficult with Sorella's and Pink Diamond's schedules, but she knew she would go. And she had to introduce Seo-yeon to Gogo, so she'd have to get her to come along too.

She kept in contact with the other Cures online, and they'd send each other photos and stories of what they were up to, but Rae had told them she was in the process of setting something up so they could see each other every month or so. Maybe they could go camping, she'd suggested, and get away from all the technology for a bit and go fishing, tell spooky stories at campfires and sleep in tents they'd set up themselves. And they could bring Ellie. No, they _would_ bring Ellie, no question about it.

* * *

"We have a new student!" Miss Helding declared excitedly during their first class of the day.

"Okay, she's not really new to you. I think you actually met her twice already… But I've never met her when I was my real self, so she's new to me! Please introduce yourself."

Most students didn't react when the new girl walked in front of the class and wrote her name on the board. There were some whispers about how she looked a little different than before, but there was nothing malicious or fearful in their words. They'd been prepped for this day by Mia, a Seyfert representative who explained that she was like the android they'd had in their class before, but without the whole her-mother-is-the-evil-overlord-AI business, that she had no memories of the events that went down in Clairewood while it was in lockdown, and asked if they could please treat her like they would any other student.

Three students in the class reacted a little differently however. Nana smiled at her as she wrote her name on the board, by hand, and didn't misspell it. Ezra looked excited and a little anxious. Saiko just looked anxious.

The girl turned around. "I'm Elleanor, but you can call me Ellie. We've met, sort of, but I don't have any memory of my time in school here, I'm sorry," she smiled apologetically. "But I'm looking forward to getting to know you all again! I hope we can be friends, I'd really like that."

"Excellent," miss Helding said, and she pointed to the empty desk next to Nana. "Your seat is over there." Nana immediately introduced herself.

"And that's Saiko," she said, pointing to Saiko who sat in front of Ellie. "And over there is Ezra." Ezra was looking their way, but quickly turned around when Nana pointed him out.

"We were your friends."

"We're still your friends," Saiko said.

A big smile appeared on Ellie's face. "You gave me Gidget! Thank you."

Nana and Saiko looked at each other in confusion.  
"You remember that?" Nana asked.

Ellie nodded. "Well okay, I don't really remember all of it, but Gidget told me you did. She became a monster for a bit and then you gave her to me afterwards when she went back to normal. She doesn't know that much about Hera though cos she didn't talk to Gidget when I wasn't home. But maybe that's for the better," she whispered.

"Wow, I'd never considered you'd be able to talk to that little robot cat."

"Does that mean you can talk to other electronics too?" The girl who sat in front of Nana turned around in her seat. Ellie nodded enthusiastically. "It's not literally talking, but I can communicate with them I guess."

"That's so cool," the girl said. She smiled at Ellie and then turned around again. Ellie smiled meekly.

"I don't think you're gonna have any problems making new friends," Nana said.

At lunch, Ellie sat with them. Ezra joined them. The school looked a lot fuller now the barrier was gone.

"I'm glad to see you're okay," Ezra said. "It's too bad you don't remember hanging out, I had a great time at the beach and at the amusement park with you."

"I guess we'll just have to go again," Ellie smiled.

"That might actually be fun," Nana said between bites. "You get to experience all of those things for the first time again."

"Do you still love cats?" Saiko asked. She'd been very quiet after Ellie's introduction in the class.

Ellie nodded. "Mia is thinking of adopting a kitten soon, I'm so excited! Gidget will have somebody to play with. She keeps trying to play with Bit but he doesn't have any paws and I don't think he enjoys being swatted at and not being able to fight back."

Bit still spent time with each Cure individually, but he officially lived with Mia and Ellie, like he had before the isolation.

A small smile appeared on Saiko's lips. "I think I know the perfect cat for you. You can come visit at the shelter, if you want."

Ellie's eyes lit up. "That'd be great! I'd love to! I was thinking, if we get one, we could name it Lucy. I really like that name. I-" but Ellie was interrupted by a student tapping her on the shoulder. She excused herself as she went with the other student. Some of Ellie's registration still had to be completed.

Saiko stared at her in astonishment as she left. "Do you want to come along when we go to the park?" Ezra asked. "To make it more like last time."

"Yes! I think- Saiko, are you okay?" Nana put a concerned hand on Saiko's arm.

"Lucy," Saiko stammered. She looked at Nana with wide eyes. "That's what she named the kitten we took care of together."

Nana stared at Saiko, then at Ezra, who didn't quite get what was going on.

Saiko grabbed Nana's arm, her eyes hopeful "Do you think…" She was afraid to say it, as if hoping for it too hard might jinx it.

"...She might get her memory back?" Nana finished for her. "Maybe. Stranger things have happened in this city."

She smiled at Saiko.

"We've got all the time in the world to find out now. And we can go wherever we want."


End file.
